Duwon Mission

History & origins

Catholic villages in the mountains of Jinan began to form as believers fled into remote areas during the Byeongin Persecution and other periods of anti-Catholic persecution. A Diocese of Jeonju account explains that, as Catholics from communities farther upstream in Baegun-myeon moved down toward lower villages, the Duwon community was one of those that remained. Duwon Mission Station is generally traced to around 1897, when Father François-Xavier Baudounet was serving at Jeonju Parish.

The mission building that survives today was newly constructed in October 1957. A statue of the Virgin Mary and a wall were added in August 1988, and around 2006–2007 the sheet-metal roof was replaced with steel plate, the wall was removed, and a flowering hedge was planted. Despite these alterations, the basic building has remained as a physical witness to the mountain mission-station tradition.

Local heritage interpretation states that Catholics now travel to Jinan Parish for Mass and that the Duwon building itself is no longer used for that purpose. Its preservation and local-heritage designation are nevertheless important because the building gives tangible form to the population shifts and decline experienced by many mountain Catholic villages and mission stations in Jinan. Duwon thus illustrates both a change in religious function and the preservation of Catholic heritage.