Jeondong Church

History & origins

The site outside Pungnammun Gate where Jeondong Catholic Church stands was an execution ground in late Joseon Jeonju and is directly connected with the early history of Catholic martyrdom in Korea. During the Sinhae Persecution of 1791, Paul Yun Ji-chung and James Kwon Sang-yeon were beheaded there and became the first Catholic martyrs in Korea. During the Sinyu Persecution of 1801, Catholics including Augustine Yu Hang-geum and Francis Yun Ji-heon were also executed in the area. The memory of these martyrdoms became central to the religious meaning of the site on which the church would later be built.

The Diocese of Jeonju's current parish record gives May 1889 as the establishment date of Jeondong Parish. Its first pastor, Fr. François Xavier Baudounet, cared for Catholic communities around Jeonju and promoted the construction of a church on the martyrdom site, with major construction beginning in 1908. Catholic pilgrimage sources record that soil and stones from the Pungnammun city wall, removed during road works under Japanese rule, were used for the church foundations.

By around 1914 the exterior work had been completed and the church had taken on the form recognizable today. The National Heritage Portal dates Jeondong Catholic Church to 1914 and preserves it as a modern Catholic church built in red and gray brick. Its Romanesque-derived forms combined with domed elements record the period in which Western-style Catholic church architecture was becoming established in the Jeonju region.

Jeondong Catholic Church was designated a Historic Site on September 25, 1981. It has continued to be used as a parish church while preserving memorial elements associated with the martyrdom site. The successive stages of parish foundation, church construction, and heritage designation have made Jeondong a place where the formation of the local Church, the history of Catholic martyrdom in Korea, and modern architectural history meet.