Jeoldusan Martyrs' Shrine

The cliff gave the shrine its name

Before the persecutions, this Han River outcrop was Jamdubong, a small rocky hill beside Yanghwajin ferry. In October 1866, executions of Catholics were moved here after the French expedition reached the river approach to Seoul. The killings continued into 1867, and the hill acquired a new name: Jeoldusan, “beheading mountain”

The shrine’s own account, drawing on church martyr records, estimates roughly 200 Catholics were executed here during the Byeongin Persecution, while 29 martyrs can be identified by name. Several of the earliest documented victims were executed by military beheading at Yanghwajin in October 1866

The memorial was designed around the execution ground

The Catholic Church purchased the site in 1956 and began building a centenary memorial a decade later. The church and museum were completed in 1967. Architect Lee Hui-tae won the design competition under a specific condition: the memorial should preserve the original form of the cliff rather than flatten the site into a conventional church campus

That decision still shapes the visit. The church and museum sit on the rocky rise above the Han River, with the river edge and former ferry landscape remaining part of the historical setting. Round colonnade columns recall palace architecture, the eaves sweep down like a thatched-roof house, and the canopy above the altar takes the form of a traditional Korean gat

The museum widens the story beyond 1866

The Korean Catholic Martyrs’ Museum uses the shrine as a starting point for a much longer history. Its permanent exhibition moves through more than two centuries of Korean Catholicism, including royal edicts against the religion, records of interrogations and executions, liturgical objects and material from other martyr sites

The shrine also preserves a sacred room containing martyrs’ remains. The museum and church therefore do different work: one explains the broader documentary history, while the other keeps the site active as a place of worship and pilgrimage

The river explains why executions moved here

Yanghwajin had long been a strategic ferry and military point on the western approach to Seoul. In 1866, after French warships reconnoitered and moved up the Han River during the Byeongyang campaign, the Joseon government treated Catholics associated with foreign missionaries as collaborators and began using this riverside military ground for executions

That sequence makes the geography unusually important. The persecution, the river approach used by foreign ships and the later martyr memorial all occupy the same small headland

Before you go

The cliff and river setting are the clearest introduction to the museum, because they show why this outcrop became an execution ground. Monday changes the visit: the shrine grounds remain accessible, but the museum is closed