형조 터

History & origins

Hyungjo was one of the Six Ministries of the Joseon government and administered criminal justice and punishment. Its direct connection with Korean Catholic history began prominently with the Eulsa Chujo Incident of 1785. Catholics including Yi Byeok, Jeong Yak-yong, and Gwon Il-sin were discovered at a faith gathering in the home of Thomas Kim Beom-u and were taken to Hyungjo for interrogation.

The incident was one of the earliest occasions on which the Joseon state formally confronted the self-founded Catholic community. During later persecutions many believers were also interrogated here. Figures associated with the site include Blessed Augustine Yu Hang-geum and Saints Columba Kim Hyo-im, Agnes Kim Hyo-ju, Ignatius Kim Je-jun, John Jeon Jang-un, and Peter Choe Hyeong.

The government building no longer survives. A marker in the pavement near the Sejong Center indicates the site, and Catholic pilgrimage routes in Seoul connect it with other places of imprisonment, interrogation, and martyrdom. Its historical meaning therefore lies less in surviving architecture than in the memory of believers who bore witness to their faith under state persecution.