About this place
Gwanghuimun Martyrs' Shrine is a Catholic martyr pilgrimage site around Gwanghuimun Gate in Jung-gu, Seoul. During the Joseon period the gate was one of the passages through which bodies were taken outside the city walls, and during the persecutions it became closely associated with the removal of the bodies of Catholic martyrs.
Today the Gwanghuimun Martyrs' Memorial Hall supports prayer and pilgrimage in their memory. The site's significance is not that it was primarily an execution ground, but that it preserves the memory of martyrs whose bodies passed through or were left and buried outside the city after their deaths.
History & origins
Gwanghuimun was a southeastern gate of the walled city of Hanyang and was also known as Sugumun. It served as a route for taking bodies outside the city. During the Catholic persecutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the bodies of believers who had died as martyrs in or near the capital were also carried through this gate and left or buried outside the walls.
To preserve this Catholic historical memory, the Archdiocese of Seoul established a martyrs' memorial hall near Gwanghuimun in 2014 and assigned a priest for pilgrimage ministry. The shrine now links the history of the old city gate with the witness of martyrs even after their deaths.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Kwangheemun Shrine: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia articles are currently available in Korean.
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Official website: https://aos.catholic.or.kr
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