Dapdong Cathedral

Overview

Dapdong Cathedral (St. Paul's Church) is the cathedral parish of the Catholic Diocese of Incheon on Dapdong Hill in Incheon and the first parish in the Incheon area. It was founded on July 1, 1889 as Jemulpo Parish, and the church consecrated on July 4, 1897 was expanded outward in 1937 to its present form. On September 25, 1981 it was designated as Historic Site No. 287.

History

According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Catholicism article carried in Good News Catholic Information, the Gospel had spread to the Incheon area before the 1839 Gihae Persecution, martyrs came from Incheon, Bupyeong, Ganghwa and other places during the Gihae and Byeongin Persecutions, and surviving believers formed small communities in various places after the persecutions and later joined Dapdong Parish. Anticipating that Jemulpo, an open port, would develop, the Joseon Diocese looked for a church site from 1888. The Incheon Diocese website explains that when the Korean-French Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1886 made it possible to purchase land and build a church in the open port, Bishop Blanc sent Father Coste to hasten church construction.

Father Joseph Wilhelm (J. Wilhelm, Hong Seok-gu) of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, who was then at the Penang Seminary on the Malay Peninsula, took charge of the new parish, advanced to Jemulpo immediately after entering the country, and founded the parish on July 1, 1889. Father Wilhelm celebrated the first Mass on July 8, 1889 in a house prepared as the church. Good News and the Catholic Newspaper give the number of believers at the first Mass as 85, while the Incheon Diocese website records 84 in total, combining 59 Koreans and 25 Japanese. The following year, in 1890, Father Wilhelm purchased 3,212 pyeong of land on the site of the present church, and was later transferred to Yongsan Sacred Heart Seminary. The Catholic Newspaper introduces him as the priest who heard the confession of independence activist An Jung-geun.

The 2 parish priest Father E. Le Viel (E. Le Viel, Sin Sam-deok) additionally purchased a neighboring hill, built a temporary church that also served as an accounting office, and completed it in July 1891. He raised church-building funds in Europe and asked the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres to send sisters, but left for a sanatorium in Hong Kong due to illness, and in 1893 Father Villemot (Villemot, U Il-mo) ministered temporarily. The 3 parish priest Father J. Maraval (J. Maraval, Seo Yo-sep) began building a convent as soon as he took office in April 1893 and at the same time started foundation work after receiving church plans from Father Coste. The convent was completed in August the following year, and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres sent 2 sisters to found the Jemulpo branch, and the childcare and free medical work they began became the predecessors of Haeseong Nursery and Haeseong Hospital.

Church construction was interrupted by the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and then resumed, with the cornerstone ceremony held on August 11, 1895 and the consecration celebrated on July 4, 1897 in the presence of Bishop Mutel. Good News explains that the church at the time had a building area of 396 pyeong and was Romanesque with three bell towers on the front. The Incheon Diocese website notes that the bell towers were completed the following year, in 1896. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture states that Father Maraval completed a Gothic brick church with a building area of 396 pyeong in 1896 and Bishop Mutel consecrated it on July 4 the following year, so the style and completion year differ by source. The Catholic Newspaper introduces that Father Coste, who designed Myeongdong Cathedral, designed it, and that the first church broke ground in 1895 and was completed in the semi-Gothic style in 1897. Father Maraval founded Parkmun Primary School, the predecessor of present-day Parkmun Elementary School, on September 1, 1900, and in 1901 established the Yeongjong Catholic mission chapel and the Daegol Catholic mission chapel. Good News records that after difficulties including a priest-beating incident in January 1895 and a cholera outbreak in July of the same year, he was suspended from priestly ministry in 1904 and entered Yeongjong Island.

The 4 parish priest Father Eugene E. Deneux (E. Deneux, Jeon Hak-jun) served from 1904 to 1937, about 33 years, the longest-serving priest. By 1910 he established Catholic mission chapels in Saemal, Gojan, Guwol-ri and Bupyeong, and on February 1, 1915 designated St. Paul as the parish patron. From 1909 he also served as principal of Parkmun School, merged the boys’ and girls’ sections in 1917 and renamed it Incheon Parkmun School, and on March 1, 1937 founded Parkmun Kindergarten on the church grounds. As the number of believers reached over 1,500, he planned reconstruction. Sources differ on when reconstruction began: the Good News architectural account gives 1933 to 4, the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture gives 1934, and the Good News chronology and the Incheon Diocese website give 1935. According to Good News, the consecration was celebrated on June 30, 1937, presided over by Bishop Larribeau, the 7 head of the Seoul Diocese.

In 1937, when Father Deneux left for rest, Father Paul Im Jong-guk became the first Korean parish priest and served until 1959. When Bishop Noh Gi-nam became head of the Seoul Diocese in 1942, Dapdong Parish was the first in the diocese to declare financial self-sufficiency, and late in the Japanese colonial period its church bells were seized and on April 1, 1945 the boys’ school building of Parkmun School was demolished under an evacuation order. After liberation, believers first recovered the seized bells. Its jurisdiction later shrank as parishes were separated: Sosa Parish on April 5, 1946, Bupyeong Parish in March 1952, Songnim-dong Parish in September 1955, and Baengnyeongdo Parish on May 9, 1959. Dohwa-dong Parish was created on July 17, 1960, Hwasu-dong Parish was created on September 18, 1962, and Daebudo Parish was separated and created in October 1992.

In October 1958, Incheon, Bucheon and nearby island areas were separated from the Seoul Diocese to establish the Incheon Vicariate, with pastoral care entrusted to the Maryknoll Foreign Mission Society, bringing major change to the parish. On November 16, 1959 Father J. Burke (J. Burke) was appointed the 6 parish priest, and on June 6, 1961 it was raised to the Incheon Vicariate and Bishop McNaughton (Na Gil-mo) became its first head, with Dapdong Parish designated as the cathedral parish. Since Father Hilario Kang Ui-seon took office as the 8 parish priest in April 1968, Korean priests have served as parish priests. Good News cites as later priests’ activities the publication in 1974 of the “85-Year History of Dapdong Parish,” the completion of the education hall in 1982, and, for the 100 anniversary of the parish founding, the publication of the “100-Year History of Dapdong Cathedral” and the construction of a new rectory and convent.

Parkmun Elementary School, marking its 100 anniversary in 2000, moved to Dongchun-dong, Yeonsu-gu on September 8, 2001, and the old school building next to the church was remodeled with a blessing ceremony for the new diocesan office building held on January 3, 2002. Ahead of the 120 anniversary of the parish founding in 2009, the church courtyard was turned into a park, with preservation work on the bell towers and bells and repairs to the doors and roof, and in August 2010 it agreed with Jung-gu, Incheon to cooperate on a historic and cultural park project for the area. According to the Catholic Newspaper (2022), the Incheon Diocese History Museum in the church compound opened in March 2021 to commemorate the 60 anniversary of the diocese’s establishment, after remodeling the interior of the building erected in 1986 as the bishop’s residence once the diocesan office moved to a new building in 2018.

Architecture and Space

Good News and the Catholic Newspaper explain that the present church is a building expanded outward according to a design by Father Chizallet (Chizallet), leaving intact the old church completed in 1897. Good News introduces it as 310 pyeong in scale, and the Incheon Diocese website as 300 pyeong. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the plan is a Latin-cross three-aisle type in Romanesque style, and its exterior resembles Jeondong Church in Jeonju. Red brick is the main material, with granite used in important places such as around windows and entrances.

There are three bell towers on the front. There is an octagonal central bell tower and two small octagonal towers at either end, with small pagoda-shaped tops decorating the front exterior together with stone ornament on the stone band below the eaves. In the center of the front is a rose window with a rose pattern, the windows are semicircular arches simply finished in granite. According to Good News, unlike earlier Western-style churches that mainly used natural stone, it mixed stone and brick, and used concrete for interior columns and the 2 floor, mixing reinforced concrete and brick. National heritage materials also explain that placing a large tower in the center of a building, adding sloped roofs as wings and then placing small towers at the ends was the common form of Korean church buildings in the early 20 century.

Interior columns are connected by round arches, and the Catholic Newspaper explains that the nave ceiling is a semicircular vault and the sanctuary ceiling is a ribbed octagonal dome. According to Good News, interior walls were painted with water-based paint over mortar, dark blue on sanctuary walls and cream elsewhere. The floor was originally wooden but was covered with artificial stone over a concrete slab during interior repairs in 1973. There are 14 concrete Stations of the Cross on wall columns, and abstract stained glass completed in 6 months after production began in June 1979 as a project commemorating the 90 anniversary of the parish founding. According to Good News, the 15 glass paintings (60cm×400cm) behind the altar bear rose patterns, and the 16 glass paintings (150cm×600cm) on side windows contain biblical themes such as the Passion of Jesus, the Pieta, and the glory of the Resurrection.

According to the National Heritage Digital Service chronology, after designation as Historic Site No. 287 in 1981, church repairs in 2004–2005, repairs in 2007–2008 to bells in 3 bell towers, roofs, doors and above the altar, and dismantling and reinstalling stonework with drainage and flower beds in 2009 were carried out. In 2012 the cultural property name was changed from “IncheonDapdong Church” to “Incheon Dapdong Church,” with drainage and window repairs and exterior washing in 2014 and roof and window repairs in 2020. The Catholic Newspaper introduces Dapdong Church as representative of late Japanese-colonial-period church architecture and the largest in size after Myeongdong Cathedral.

Religious Meaning and Visiting Context

Dapdong Church has shared the history and beginnings of the Catholic Church in the Incheon area. Its founding name was Jemulpo Parish after Incheon’s old place name, then called Incheon Parish, and called Dapdong Parish from around 1958. Its patron is St. Paul the Apostle. According to Good News, the number of believers was 5,374 in 1964, 5,689 in 1965, and 5,413 in 1966, rising again from over 3,900 in 1971 to maintain around 4 thousand. Good News records that since Father Philip Kim Byeong-sang, the 10 parish priest, efforts have been made to revitalize the parish and foster solidarity with society through expanded lay activities, prayer meetings for the nation and democratization movements, and neighbor-help activities, and the Catholic Newspaper introduces Dapdong Church as having served as a cradle of democratization in the Incheon area.

Related Places and People

• Incheon Diocese History Museum: located in the church compound and consisting of 6 exhibition rooms and a special exhibition room.
• Parkmun Elementary School: the school Father Maraval founded in 1900 as Parkmun Primary School.
• Fathers Coste and Chizallet: transmitted as the designers of the original church and the 1937 expanded church respectively.
• Fathers Wilhelm, Maraval and Deneux: recorded as successive parish priests for parish founding, church construction, and ministry in 33 respectively.
• Jeondong Church in Jeonju: introduced as a church with a similar exterior in the same style.

References and Sources

1. Good News Catholic Information, Dapdong Cathedral in the Incheon Diocese (citing Encyclopedia of Korean Catholicism Vol. 3, Cha Gi-jin, 1996 and others). Parish founding and successive parish priests, church construction progress, parish divisions, architectural description, and 2000s maintenance were confirmed.
   https://maria.catholic.or.kr/sa_ho/list/view.asp?ctxtOrgNum=2866&menugubun=holyplace
2. Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Incheon Dapdong Church. Parish founding, site purchase, completion in 1896 and consecration in 1897, expansion in 1937, architectural style, and establishment of the Incheon Vicariate and designation as cathedral were confirmed.
   https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0047072
3. Catholic Diocese of Incheon, introduction to Dapdong Cathedral Parish. Church construction background, first Mass participants, cornerstone ceremony in 1895 and consecration in 1897, and expansion in 1935–1937 were confirmed.
   http://www.caincheon.or.kr/church/church_jigu.do
4. Catholic Newspaper, Finding Catholic Cultural Heritage 3. Historic Site No. 287 Incheon Dapdong Church. Founding process, architectural structure, designer, Father Deneux’s ministry in 33, and relation to the democratization movement were confirmed.
   https://www.catholictimes.org/article/201104120003073
5. Catholic Newspaper, Church Museums Around Us (3) Incheon Diocese Dapdong Cathedral and History Museum. Father Coste’s design, expansion in 1935–1937, and opening and composition of the Incheon Diocese History Museum were confirmed.
   https://www.catholictimes.org/article/202201250096258
6. National Heritage Digital Service, Incheon Dapdong Church. Architectural features and post-designation repair history, and name change in 2012 were confirmed.
   https://digital.khs.go.kr/heri/heriDetail.do?ctptNo=1332302870000&ctptUid=13898859676418300904