Cheongyang Darakgol Row-Grave Martyrdom Site

About this place

The 'row graves' (julmudeum) take their name from the practice of burying many people together in one grave, also called 'julmyo'. These graves hold Catholics who were martyred in Hongju Prison during the Joseon government's suppression of Catholicism. There are 37 graves in total, mostly for family units. The ruins of 10 homes in the surrounding area suggest that an entire village suffered during the persecution. The Darakgol Martyrdom Site in Cheongyang is the historic Catholic village birthplace of Father Choe Yang-eop, the 'martyr of sweat,' and his father, Saint Choe Gyeong-hwan. On the sunny ridge of the hill behind the village, the graves and tombstones of unnamed martyrs stand in several rows; the identity of those buried there is unknown. It is passed down through oral tradition that during the Byeongin Persecution of 1866, the bodies of Catholics martyred at the Hongju provincial office were secretly removed at night and buried here, on the ancestral mountain of the Choe clan.