Seosomun Outside Four-Way Intersection Martyrs' Shrine

History & origins

The crossroads outside Seosomun began as a major point of movement beyond the southwestern gate of the walled Joseon capital and also served as an execution ground. The custom of avoiding the disposal of bodies within the city and the public visibility of a heavily traveled place made it a suitable location for carrying out sentences against serious offenders. After the persecution of Catholics began, Church leaders and believers were executed there, with martyrdoms occurring from the Sinyu Persecution of 1801 through the Gihae Persecution of 1839 and the Byeongin Persecution beginning in 1866. Among those who died here was St. Paul Chong Hasang, together with many others later declared saints or blesseds.

Modern urbanization greatly altered the physical traces of the martyrdom site. Seosomun Gate was demolished in 1914, while rail construction, markets, and other urban facilities transformed the landscape of the former execution ground. The Catholic Church in Korea nevertheless continued to remember the location as a major site of martyrdom. The canonization of 103 Korean martyrs in 1984 and the beatification of 124 martyrs in 2014 made the historical significance of Seosomun still more visible. Pope Francis’s visit to the site on August 16, 2014, before the beatification Mass at Gwanghwamun, further brought its meaning to the attention of the universal Church.

In the twenty-first century, a major project was undertaken to present the memory of the martyrs together with the urban history of Seoul. The present combination of historical park, underground museum, and prayer spaces allows the memory of the former execution ground, long obscured by city development, to be read again within the modern city. In 2018, the Seoul pilgrimage routes that include Seosomun received Vatican recognition as an official international pilgrimage site. The shrine today thus brings together the scene of late-Joseon persecution, the memory of a place altered by modernization, and the Church’s contemporary life of pilgrimage and historical education.