Pungsuwon Church

History & origins

Catholics who fled persecution in the late Joseon period settled in the mountain area around Pungsuwon and formed a Catholic village. They preserved their faith while farming slash-and-burn fields and making pottery, and this community became the foundation for the establishment of Pungsuwon Parish on June 20, 1888. Its first pastor was Fr. Le Merre of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and Pungsuwon became an early pastoral center serving a wide missionary territory in the Gangwon region.

Fr. Augustine Jeong Gyu-ha, who arrived in 1896, undertook the construction of a brick church to replace the earlier thatched chapel. Work began in 1905, and the present church was completed around 1907. Public heritage records note an inauguration ceremony in 1909, while a Catholic architectural study records a liturgical dedication presided over by Bishop Mutel in November 1910. The two records point to distinct stages—the completion and public inauguration of the building, followed by its formal ecclesial dedication.

Construction of the former rectory behind the church began in 1912 and was completed on October 1, 1913. The brick rectory served parish life for many years, was converted into an exhibition space in 1998, and was registered as a National Registered Cultural Heritage on April 15, 2005. The church itself was designated a provincial tangible cultural property in 1982 and is now protected as a Tangible Cultural Heritage of Gangwon State.

The history of 풍수원 성당 therefore links a lay Catholic community formed in the time of persecution, the establishment of the parish in 1888, the modern brick church built under a Korean priest, and the later preservation of its architectural heritage. It is not merely a historic building left behind from the past: parish faith life continues there, making Pungsuwon an important place where the formation, growth, and remembrance of Catholicism in Gangwon can be encountered together.