Gwandukjeong Martyrs Memorial Hall

History & origins

Gwandeokdang, the predecessor of Gwandeokjeong, was built in 1749, the 25th year of King Yeongjo, as a government facility where military examinations, training, and public gatherings were held. Because it had a broad courtyard suitable for public events, it was also used for executions, and during the nineteenth-century persecutions of Catholics it became a place where believers who remained faithful were put to death.

According to official records of the Archdiocese of Daegu, seven Catholics were martyred at Gwandeokdang during the Eulhae Persecution of 1815, three during the Gihae Persecution of 1839, and seven—including Saint John Yi Yun-il—during the Byeongin Persecution of 1866. The repeated use of the same place for executions across several persecutions made Gwandeokjeong a site of particular memory in the history of the Catholic Church in Daegu.

The relics of Saint John Yi Yun-il were transferred several times. They were moved to the cemetery of unidentified martyrs at Mirinae in 1976, then after his canonization to the chapel of the Archdiocesan offices in 1986. On his feast day in 1987, the relics were placed at Seongmodang and he was proclaimed the second patron saint of the Archdiocese of Daegu. After the Gwandeokjeong Martyrs’ Memorial Hall was completed in 1991, his relics were placed beneath the altar of its underground chapel.

Gwandeokjeong thus developed from a Joseon public and execution space into a site of martyrdom during persecution and, in modern times, into a shrine preserving the relics and memory of the martyrs. Although the function of the place changed over time, the history of nineteenth-century martyrdom and the Church’s continuing work of commemoration together shaped the memorial hall that stands today.