Daejae Mission

History & origins

Wonseung Village, where Doejae is located, developed as a Catholic village centered on believers who took refuge there from persecution during the late Joseon period. On the foundation of this community, Doejae Church was completed in 1895. Wanju County’s heritage information describes it as the second Catholic church completed in Korea after Yakhyeon Church in Seoul, the first south of the Han River, and a building regarded as the earliest hanok-style Catholic church.

The original church used a traditional Korean timber structure with a tiled hip-and-gable roof, adapting the spatial requirements of Catholic liturgy to hanok architecture. The building, however, was destroyed by fire during the Korean War. In 1954 a new mission chapel was erected on the site, allowing the local Catholic community to continue its religious life.

When the parish seat was transferred from Sucheong back to Gosan in 1958, Doejae became a mission station under Gosan Parish. The old church site and the mission community have since been preserved as witnesses to the history of an early Catholic village and Korean hanok church architecture. Doejae’s history brings together, in a single place, the long transition from a persecution-era refuge community to a parish church, wartime destruction, and continuing mission-station life.