Cheongju National Museum

Cheongju National Museum is worth a look for its building alone. It was designed by Kim Swoo-geun, the architect who shaped modern Korean architecture, and opened on 30 October 1987, its galleries stepping down a wooded valley on the eastern slope of Uamsan. Since a full redesign of the permanent galleries in 2022, the museum tells the story of North Chungcheong through one theme: metal.

History: a national museum set into the hillside

The museum is a branch of the National Museum of Korea, founded to research and display the heritage of North Chungcheong Province. Kim designed the building in 1979, and it is often described as combining the spirit of scholars who retreated to the mountains with the solid image of a fortress. A visit starts in the highest gallery and slowly works its way down, with windows opening onto the forest along the way. A children's museum (1998), the Cheongmyeonggwan hall (2004) and the Cheongryeongwan hall (2014) were added later.

What to see

• Archaeology Galleries 1 and 2, "Metal and a Changing Way of Life": how metal transformed society, from the hunters and gatherers of the Stone Age through the Bronze and Iron Ages to the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla.
• Art Gallery, "Culture That Blossomed with Metal": Buddhist metalwork and carved Buddhist steles. One of the museum's treasures is the Buddhist Stele of Amitabha with the "Gyeyu Year" inscription, a National Treasure made in 673 at the wish of the Jeon family.
• Gold Crown Gallery, "Dignity in Metal": a room created to showcase metal art, with a special display of the gold crown and gold belt from the Seobongchong tomb.
• The archaeology and art galleries hold around 1,400 objects from prehistory to the Joseon period, along with metal heritage collected by the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee.

What to look for outside

Behind the museum stands a working reconstruction of an ancient iron furnace, based on the Seokjang-ri site in Jincheon that the museum excavated from 1994 to 1997. Seokjang-ri was a Baekje ironworks of the late 3rd to early 5th century and is the largest ancient iron-making site found in Korea so far. In the garden in front of Cheongryeongwan is a Unified Silla stone-chamber tomb moved here from Yongdam-dong in Cheongju, and a new stone garden displays some 210 of the 836 stone artefacts donated by Lee Kun-hee.

Good to know

The ginkgo avenue and pond in the rear garden lead onto the walking trails of Uamsan, which are especially pleasant in autumn. The playground has a "mega slide" 9 m high and 25 m long, so the museum is popular with families. In Cheongryeongwan you can book a digital blacksmith's workshop and a 4D cinema.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 09:00–18:00, free admission. Closed on Mondays, 1 January and on Seollal and Chuseok days; when a Monday is a public holiday, the museum closes on the next weekday instead.
• Partial closure: the Art Gallery and Gold Crown Gallery are closed for upgrades from 29 September to 27 December 2026 and are due to reopen on 29 December. The archaeology galleries, children's museum and Cheongryeongwan stay open.
• Getting there: from Osong Station (KTX/SRT), take bus 509 from stop 5 outside exit 7, change at Dochung (Provincial Office) to bus 862 or 863 and get off at Cheongju National Museum. From Cheongju Express and Intercity Bus Terminal, take bus 509 and change the same way. A taxi from Osong takes about 30 minutes.
• Time needed: 1–2 hours for the permanent galleries. The museum sits on the road up to Sangdangsanseong Fortress, so the two combine well into a day out.