우포도청 터

History & origins

The Podocheong became a permanent institution in 1541 during the reign of King Jungjong, with separate left and right bureaus responsible for policing and criminal investigation in the capital. The Right Police Bureau covered western and northern parts of Seoul, and as persecution of Catholicism intensified in the nineteenth century, searching for, arresting, and investigating Catholics became an important part of its work.

Arrested Catholics were interrogated and punished at the Podocheong, and some died there as martyrs. Material on the Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route states that Saint Andrew Kim Taegon wrote his final prison letter at the Right Police Bureau and also connects the site with martyrs such as the young Saint Peter Yu Tae-chol during the 1839 Gihae Persecution.

The Podocheong was abolished in 1894 during the Gabo Reform and replaced by a modern police administration. To honor the history of those martyred in the left and right bureaus, the Archdiocese of Seoul designated Jongno Catholic Church as the Podocheong pilgrimage church in 2013. The site of the Right Police Bureau remains a Catholic historical place on the Seoul pilgrimage route.