Soyangno Catholic Church, Chuncheon

This building was built by Fr James Buckley of the Saint Columban Missionary Society to honour Fr Anthony Collier, the parish priest of Soyang Catholic Church, who was shot by the North Korean People's Army during the Korean War. As the first church building in Korea to adopt a modern style, its plan is based on a semicircle, a form rarely seen at the time: the pews are arranged in a fan shape around a central altar, with an entrance and a confessional set at the centre of the curved wall, and a sacristy and a nursery attached at either end. Arched windows and buttresses are classical techniques commonly used in church architecture, but the simple forms, stripped of all ornamentation, together with the bright, functional interior space, apply a modern architectural concept, and the church is regarded as an advanced design that broke away from medieval-style church architecture.

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Where it is

Region

Chuncheon, Gangwon

Designation

Registered Cultural Heritage · 국가등록문화유산