Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery

One burial created the cemetery

Yanghwajin began with a burial problem. When physician-missionary J.W. Heron died in Seoul in July 1890, summer heat made the long transport to the existing foreign cemetery at Jemulpo impractical. Diplomatic negotiations produced a new burial ground near the capital, and Heron became its first interment

The legal basis came from Korea’s treaty system. Foreign representatives invoked provisions requiring burial land within treaty-port areas, and the Joseon government secured ground at Yanghwajin. The cemetery expanded again in 1897 and in 1904–05 as Seoul’s foreign community grew

The graves map institutions across modern Seoul

Today 417 people from 15 countries are buried across 13,224 square metres. Among them are 145 missionaries and family members from six countries, but the cemetery also includes journalists, educators and other foreign residents whose work extended far beyond church congregations

The individual graves make that network concrete. Heron worked as a physician at Jejungwon. Horace Grant Underwood helped found Saemoonan Church, worked on Bible translation and established the institution that became Yonsei University. Mary Scranton founded Ewha Hakdang. Journalist Ernest Bethell created the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, while Homer Hulbert worked in education and later advocated internationally for Korean independence

The cemetery almost disappeared into modern Seoul

By 1979, Yanghwajin had deteriorated badly. The grounds were described as an unmanaged ruin filled with rubbish, and Seoul’s subway construction plans raised the possibility of moving the cemetery entirely

Restoration in 1985 was physical work on a large scale. Crews removed roughly 150 truckloads of rubbish, cleared weeds and set fallen gravestones upright again. A missionary memorial building followed, and the cemetery was gradually reorganized as a maintained historical and religious site

The present route is deliberately selective

The cemetery does not ask visitors to decode all 417 graves on their own. Its smart-docent route selects 25 missionaries, with QR videos and text available in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese. Advance-booked guided visits can also request interpretation in English, Japanese or Chinese, while detailed commentary is kept outside the burial rows so the grounds remain quiet

That curatorial choice is useful. It turns a dense field of names into a manageable route through medicine, education, publishing, church history and family networks without pretending every grave carries the same historical weight

Before you go

Begin with the introduction material or smart-docent map before walking the rows; the grave field is much easier to understand with names and institutions already in mind. Jeoldusan Martyrs’ Shrine is immediately adjacent, so the two sites can be paired to read Catholic persecution and Protestant missionary history on the same stretch of the Han River