Namhan Mountain Sanctuary

History & origins

The connection between Namhansanseong and Catholic persecution reaches back to the late eighteenth century. Diocesan materials preserve records and traditions of Catholics being imprisoned at the fortress around the time of the Sinhae Persecution in 1791, and remember Blessed Thomas Han Deok-un as an important witness during the period of the Shinyu Persecution. As successive persecutions followed, Namhansanseong became one of the places where Catholics were imprisoned, interrogated, and executed.

In the modern period, organized efforts began to preserve the sites of martyrdom. In 1978 the Diocese of Suwon secured about 130 pyeong of land at a martyrdom site inside the fortress, and the following year a large commemoration of the founding of the Catholic Church in Korea was held there. During the 1990s, priests and parish communities from the Seongnam area helped expand the grounds and develop the shrine, and on September 30, 1999, the diocese officially proclaimed Namhansanseong a martyr shrine.

Providing a stable church where pilgrims could celebrate Mass and pray remained an important task. Construction of a new church began in March 2013, followed by entry into the building and completion in 2014. Designed in a traditional Korean architectural form, it included the main church on the first floor and a choir loft and Eucharistic adoration room above, integrating a place of liturgy and martyr commemoration with the historical fortress landscape.

The new church was formally dedicated on April 25, 2015, marking a major stage in the decades-long development of the shrine. It was the result of sustained work by the diocese and local Catholic communities since the first martyr site was secured. Through this process, Namhansanseong has been transformed from a place remembered only for persecution into a place where the Church today keeps alive the martyrs’ faith and conscience through pilgrimage and prayer.