Old Churches of Korea’s Catholic Heartland

See Flickr slideshow here.

Seosan’s Sanghong-ri Mission Chapel, built in 1920 by French missionaries in a mixed Gothic and hanok style.

Tomb of Father Pierre Barraux, MEP, who founded Dongmun-dong Catholic Church in 1937.

As was noted in my 2007 post, “Temples, Oysters and Dead Catholics,” the small town of Seosan in northern Chungcheongnam-do is holy ground for Korean Catholics thanks to the rather grim role it played in the Great Persecution of 1866. Not surprisingly, therefore, Seosan and the surrounding region has several old Catholic churches of historical and architectural importance. Along with a friend, I got to visit some of these Sunday.

Heartland of Korean Catholicism?

In the late Joseon era, the northern region of Chungcheongnam-do — the towns of Asan, Seosan, Yesan and Hongseong — enjoyed brisk trade with China. Because of this, Catholicism was introduced here before it was in other regions. This is clearly revealed in the butcher’s bill — of the roughly 10,000 people killed during the four great persecutions of the late Joseon era, some 60—70% came from the Chungcheong provinces.

We’ll be taking a look at three churches — Dongmun-dong Catholic Church and Sanghong-ri Mission Chapel in Seosan and Gongse-ri Catholic Church in Asan. Due to lack of time, we could not visit Hapdeok Catholic Church in Dangjin and Yesan Catholic Church in, oddly, Yesan.

Dongmun-dong Catholic Church

Dongmun-dong Catholic Church was founded in 1937 by Father Pierre Barraux of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. Who designed the church is not entirely clear, but considering Barraux’s inexperience — he’d come to Korea in 1930 and served under Father P. Perrin at Hapdeok Catholic Church before moving to Seosan in 1932 — it’s unlikely he designed it himself. More likely is that he received help from Father Perrin.

Dongmun-dong Catholic Church was built to replace the original Seosan church, today’s Sanghong-ri Chapel (see below). It’s a larger structure that sits on a hill overlooking downtown. Unlike many French-built churches in Korea, which are usually built of red and gray brick, this one is made from reinforced concrete with a mortar exterior. Between its white and gray exterior and its bell tower, which does not protrude from the front facade, one is almost reminded of Nagasaki’s Oura Catholic Church.

The interior is pleasant enough — relatively plain with barrel vaults. The stained glass windows were nice, though, even if they are characterized by the unsettling Hello Kitty-like lack of a mouth. Or eyes, for that matter.

Out back is a walking path with the Stations of the Cross. A monument to Father Barraux is back there, too.

Sanghong-ri Mission Chapel

I remember, a while ago, seeing photos of Sanghong-ri Mission Chapel on Hanpig2000’s blog and thinking to myself, damn, I’ve got to see this place, if for no other reason than the cool white and gray-green paint job. The Western Confucian thought so, too, apparently. Well, I finally got my chance, and all I can say is it’s one of the most wonderful pieces of Catholic architecture in Korea I’ve visited.

Sanghong-ri Chapel, built in 1920, was Seosan’s first (OK, technically second) Catholic church, although its status was reduced to that of a station chapel once the larger and more conveniently located Dongmun-dong Catholic Church was built. It was designed by Father Desideratus Polly, who — according to testimony from locals — returned from World War I in 1919 and moved into the home of the local Catholic community leader, Baek Min-su. The following year, Baek donated some 800 pyeong of land to Polly to build the church and a rectory. Polly entrusted the actual construction to a Japanese fellow. Skilled Korean woodcutters — i.e., the actual experts at hanok construction — were employed as well.

The result, as you can see, is a rather eclectic design mixing Western and Korean features, not entirely dissimilar to the hanok Anglican churches of Ganghwa-do. The original Korean-style bell tower was built in 1923, but the one you see above is a 1986 reconstruction carried out by Kim Yeon-jae and Lim Gwang-ho, who participated in the preservation and renovation of nearby Gaesimsa Temple.

The chapel is in remarkably good condition thanks to both care from the local village and some grade A restoration work… even if one could do without the Saemaul Orange roof. A priest visits twice a month to tend to the village, which apparently was a gyouchon — a village of Catholics hiding from persecution. It’s usually locked, but if you tell the office at Dongmun-dong Catholic Church you’re visiting, they can call ahead to the guy who maintains the chapel, who will be all too happy to show you around. The guys who guided us around were quite proud of their chapel and happy to see people interested in it.

I really like wooden church interiors. The layout is that of a basilica — high central naive nave flanked by two aisles. Oh yeah, and a clerestory. The wooden floors were rubbed down with a coating of clay and oil, giving them that nice color. The altar has been restored to how it was when the church was first built, i.e., for the Tridentine Mass. The paintings behind the altar are from France.

The windows, incidentally, use a nifty counterweight system I’ve yet to see in other churches.

The hanok rectory was built at roughly the same time of the chapel. There’s no longer any resident priest, of course, so the rectory has since been renovated and is used as a meeting place for village Catholics. It does contain some interesting old photographs of the church and its congregation, however.

One fun thing is that one the original inner doors has been preserved, along with several small holes drilled into it — in winter, when the priests didn’t want to go to the church, they used the rectory as a confessional.

Atop the hill behind the church is a martyrs’ grave set up by Father Barraux in 1935. Using testimony from village elders, Barraux succeeded in excavating the remains of martyrs buried alive near Haemi Fortress in the 1866 persecution. He took the remains and buried them behind his church, in the clan graveyard of the village Baek and Lim families. There they remained until 1995, when it was decided to return the remains to Haemi, where they were originally found.

The Korean War: A 20th Century Persecution?

Father Barraux died of fever in 1946. It’s said he fell ill after he administered viaticum to a sick parishioner — when the sick man spit out the host, Barrraux accepted it himself, and was infected as a result.

He may have been lucky. Father Desideratus Polly, the designer of Sanghong-ri Chapel, and Father P. Perrin, Barraux’s senior at Hapdeok Catholic Church and the probable designer of Dongmun-dong Catholic Church, were both killed by the North Koreans in 1950. They join a long list of Catholic clergy who were killed by the communists in their zeal to ideologically purify the Korean Peninsula, including the Gombert brothers and the Irish martyrs of Chuncheon.

Gongse-ri Catholic Church

An hour bus trip from Seosan brings you to the town of Asan, home to one of Korea’s most beautiful churches, Gongse-ri Catholic Church.

Gongse-ri Catholic Church is the work of Father Emile Pierre Devise, who came to Korea in 1894 at the age of 23 and spent the next 34 years developing Gongse-ri Catholic Church into what it is today. Devise established the first Gongse-ri church in 1895 in a renovated hanok. The site — from which the church takes its name — was originally home to a royal regional storehouse for the grain tax. The area is considered holy ground — Catholicism came to the Gongse-ri early, and accordingly, it produced more than its fair share of martyrs. In the 1866 persecution, 28 people from Gongse-ri were killed, including three brothers — Park Ui-seo, Park Won-seo and Park Ik-seo.

The current red and gray brick church was built in 1921. Like many French-built churches, it follows a mostly Gothic design and was constructed by Chinese bricklayers. Due to its beauty, it is frequently used as a backdrop for films.

In 2000, the interior was restored to its original condition. Everyone likes barrel vaults.

When Father Devise turned 60, a serious ear ailment prevented him from administering confession, so he left Gongse-ri to take up a position in the Archdiocese office in Seoul. While in Seoul, he managed Church property and handled architectural projects, including the chapel of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres convent behind Myeong-dong Cathedral. In 1932, though, he fell ill and was bedridden. He returned to France, and died the following year.

Besides his architectural works, Devise — who sported a pretty wicked mustache — left behind something else, too. He was the inventor of the Lee Myung-nae Ointment Plaster, an herbal medicine bandage he developed to treat local villagers working on land reclamation projects. Later, he taught the recipe to his servant, Lee Myung-nae, under whose name it grew famous.

The old rectory, which is now a museum, was built in 1922. The one-story classroom, however, was built in 1956.

A small underground crypt for pilgrims to the site.

Tagged as: Early modern architecture, Seosan