Galmaemot Martyrs' Shrine

History & origins

When the Byeongin Persecution began in 1866, Bishop Antoine Daveluy was arrested at Sin-ri. Hoping to prevent further suffering among Catholics, he urged Fathers Pierre Aumaître and Martin-Luc Huin to surrender. Luke Hwang Seok-du was also arrested, and the group was taken to Seoul and sentenced to death. Because a royal celebration was approaching and bloodshed near the capital was considered inauspicious, they were sent to Galmaemot in Boryeong, where a naval command was located. Joseph Jang Ju-gi, who had been imprisoned in Seoul, was made to accompany them.

The five were executed on the sandy shore at Galmaemot on 30 March 1866, which was Good Friday. Galmaemot’s role as a military and naval strategic point shows that this was not merely a commemorative site created later, but a historical place directly connected with the executions themselves. The Church subsequently preserved the place and developed it as a shrine honoring the faith of the martyrs.

Public heritage protection followed as well. Korea’s National Heritage Portal identifies the site as the “Boryeong Galmaemot Catholic Martyrdom Site” and records its designation or registration on 12 February 2013. Galmaemot thus stands both as a place of Catholic pilgrimage memory and as a historical site preserved within the wider cultural heritage of Korea.