About this place
The former Left Podocheong site, near 28 Donhwamun-ro in Jongno-gu, Seoul, is recognized by the Seoul Archdiocese as a Catholic historical site. The Left Police Bureau was one of the Joseon institutions responsible for policing and criminal investigation in the capital, and during the Catholic persecutions many believers were arrested, interrogated, punished, and compelled to defend their faith there.
The site today is not a shrine with a church building but an urban historical location marked for pilgrimage. Together with the pilgrimage ministry of nearby Jongno Catholic Church, it forms part of a walking route linking the left and right police bureaus, Jeonokseo, the Ministry of Justice, and other sites of persecution.
History & origins
One of the earliest major events linking the Left Podocheong directly with Korean Catholic persecution history was the Eulmyo Persecution of 1795. After an attempt to arrest the Chinese missionary Father James Zhou Wen-mo failed, Matthias Choe In-gil, Paul Yun Yu-il, and Saba Ji Hwang were arrested and died after severe punishment at the Left Police Bureau.
After the Sinyu Persecution of 1801, the left and right police bureaus continued to play a central role in arresting and interrogating Catholics from Seoul and Gyeonggi. Some leading believers were transferred to the Ministry of Justice or Uigeumbu, but many others confessed their faith amid imprisonment and punishment at the police bureaus, and some died there.
Over successive persecutions the Left Podocheong became a place associated with the witness of saints, blesseds, and many other Catholics whose names are less well known. The Church preserves the location not simply as the site of a former government office, but as a concentrated place of Christian witness under arrest, interrogation, and punishment.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Jwapodocheong Site: 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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Building information
- Passenger elevators: 0
- 3 above-ground floors · 0 below-ground floors
- Approved for use in 1980
- Total floor area: 430㎡
Building-register record · · Source
Accessibility information
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Sources and updates
- Information Status
- Official
- Source
- Official source
- Data freshness
- Fresh
- Last updated
- Source
- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Official website: https://aos.catholic.or.kr
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