공세리 성당

History & origins

The history of Gongseri Parish begins with a parish established at Ganyang-gol in Yesan in 1890. The Diocese of Daejeon describes Gongseri, together with Hapdeok, as one of the earliest parishes established in Chungcheong Province. Its first base was Ganyang-gol, but in 1895 the parish purchased the site of the former Gongsechang tax-grain warehouse and moved to present-day Gongseri. At the time, this area was a port at the coastal entrance to the Naepo region that linked sea and land routes, and the name “Gongseri” itself derives from the Gongsechang where tax grain was stored. The move was therefore more than a change of address: it established a new Catholic center in a place where regional transport and everyday life had long converged.

After relocating, the parish settled into the new site and gradually developed its church facilities. The brick church that survives today was designed by Father Devise of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and completed in 1922. Built in a modern Gothic style, it gave visible architectural form to the missionary and pastoral foundation that the parish had sustained for more than a generation. It was later registered as Chungcheongnam-do Monument No. 144 and is preserved as an example of modern-period Catholic architecture in Korea.

The memory of martyrs is as important to Gongseri's history as its buildings. The shrine contains an ossuary-style burial place for martyrs' remains and a memorial monument, while the former presbytery was converted into a museum presenting the life of Catholic villages during persecution and the stories of the martyrs. The museum also displays the remains of the three Park brothers and related objects, helping visitors encounter concretely the memory of martyr faith preserved by the parish. Through the development of these facilities, Gongseri came to possess the character of both a local parish and a shrine devoted to the commemoration of martyrs and education in Church history.

Gongseri's history can therefore be understood as a continuous process: a parish begun at Ganyang-gol moved to the former Gongsechang site and took root there, erected a modern church, and then developed spaces for preserving the memory of martyrs. The church, former presbytery, and martyr memorial facilities that remain today belong to different periods, yet together they serve as tangible records of the Catholic community that has continued in the Naepo region.