Myeongdong Cathedral

Image: Wikimedia Commons

On a hill in the heart of Seoul where Korea's first Catholic community gathered in the eighteenth century, Myeongdong Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, is the seat of the Archdiocese of Seoul and the beating heart of Korean Catholicism. Completed in 1898, it was Korea's first parish church and its first great Gothic-style brick church, and its crypt guards the relics of martyrs of the Korean persecutions, among them Bishop Laurent Imbert. Designated a national Historic Site, it also sheltered the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s, earning a cherished place in the nation's conscience; masses fill it daily in the middle of the shopping district.