42 attractions in South Chungcheong, including Gyeryongsan National Park, Gapsa Temple (Gongju) and Gongsanseong Fortress.
National parks
공주시
Gyeryongsan takes its name from its ridgeline, said to resemble a dragon wearing a rooster's crest. It spans Gongju, Gyeryong and Daejeon, and on 31 December 1968 it became Korea's second national park after Jirisan. Rocky ridges, deep val…
Churches & monasteries
공주시
An old saying goes "Magok in spring, Gapsa in autumn" (春麻谷 秋甲寺): Magoksa is at its finest in spring, Gapsa in autumn. Set on the northwestern slopes of Gyeryongsan, Gapsa feels special from the moment you walk in under old pines and zelkov…
Fortresses
공주시
Gongsanseong is the mountain fortress that guarded the royal capital of Baekje while it was based at Ungjin, today's Gongju, from 475 to 538. Its walls run for about 2.66 km along a ridge about 110 m high south of the Geumgang River, and f…
Churches & monasteries
공주시
Donghaksa sits in a valley on the eastern side of Mt. Gyeryongsan and is home to Korea's oldest college for Buddhist nuns. Together with Gapsa on the western side, it is one of the two best-known temples of Gyeryongsan, and in spring crowd…
Churches & monasteries
공주시
Right in front of the temple, the stream swings round in a wide S-bend. Geomancers likened its course to the taegeuk symbol, and Joseon writers counted the Magoksa area among the ten refuges where you could sit out a war in safety. Magoksa…
Historic sites & memorials
공주시
The Tomb of King Muryeong and Royal Tombs lie on the southern slope of Songsan hill in Ungjin-dong, Gongju, South Chungcheong. They are the burial ground of the kings and royal family of Baekje during its Ungjin period, when the capital wa…
Churches & monasteries
공주시
On the southwestern slopes of Gyeryongsan, Sinwonsa is counted with Donghaksa and Gapsa among the mountain's three great temples. It dates back to the Baekje kingdom, but what sets it apart is Jungakdan, a shrine where the Joseon royal cou…
Churches & monasteries
논산시
On the eastern slope of Banyasan in Nonsan, Gwanchoksa is home to the Stone Standing Maitreya Bodhisattva, often called the largest stone Buddha statue in Korea. About 18 m tall and nicknamed Eunjin Mireuk after the area's old name, it is…
Museums
부여군
Buyeo, ancient Sabi, was the last capital of the Baekje kingdom, and its national museum gathers the heritage of Sabi-period Baekje and the prehistory of western South Chungcheong. It is home to the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje, co…
Gardens & parks
서천군
Near the mouth of the Geumgang River in Seocheon, the National Institute of Ecology is both a research body and Korea's largest ecology exhibition. Its centrepiece is the Ecorium, a set of glasshouses recreating five of the world's climate…
Churches & monasteries
금산군
On the south-eastern slopes of Jinaksan in Geumsan, Boseoksa is a temple better known for the tree in its courtyard than for its halls. A ginkgo believed to be more than 1,000 years old stands here as a Natural Monument, and a fir-lined pa…
Historic sites & memorials
논산시
Donam Seowon was founded to honour Kim Jang-saeng (1548–1631), the great Joseon scholar of Confucian ritual. It is one of the few academies that survived the 1871 decree abolishing seowon, and in 2019 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World H…
Fortresses
당진시
Myeoncheoneupseong is an early Joseon walled town that still wraps almost the whole centre of Myeoncheon in Dangjin. It was built in 1439 to hold off Japanese pirates raiding the west coast, and today you can walk the rebuilt south gate wi…
Churches & monasteries
당진시
Solmoe, meaning "a small hill thick with pines", is the birthplace of St Andrew Kim Dae-geon, the first Korean Catholic priest. Four generations of his family, from his great-grandfather to Kim himself, lived here and died as martyrs, and…
Museums
천안시
The Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan is the country's largest history museum devoted to the modern history of Korea, with a focus on the independence movement under Japanese colonial rule. A public fundraising campaign began in 1982 i…
Coast & islands
태안군
Mallipo is a long, gently curving sweep of fine sand at the western tip of the Taean Peninsula. It has long been counted among the three great beaches of Korea's west coast, alongside Daecheon and Byeonsan, and more recently surfers have n…
Museums
부여군
In Gyuam-myeon, on the west bank of the Baengma River at Buyeo, red-pillared palaces with bright painted eaves spread across a wide site. Baekje Cultural Land is Korea's largest historical theme park, a full-scale re-creation of the palace…
Coast & islands
보령시
About two and a half hours from Seoul by train, halfway down the west coast, a beach so long you can barely see its end stretches along the shore. Daecheon Beach is the largest beach on Korea's west coast, about 3.5 km long and 100 m wide.…
Churches & monasteries
보령시
Head east from central Boryeong into the valleys of Seongjusan and you reach a wide lawn ringed by mountains, with four stone pagodas standing in a row. This is the site of Seongjusa, once one of the great Zen monasteries of Silla. Its hal…
Fortresses
보령시
On a hill behind Ocheon Harbour in Boryeong stand the stone walls of what was once the naval headquarters of Joseon's Chungcheong Province. The fortress looks out over the mouth of Cheonsu Bay, so from the walls you take in the sea, the is…
Fortresses
부여군
Garimseong is the only Baekje fortress for which both the year of construction and its original name survive in written records. It rings the summit of Seongheungsan, a hill of only about 260 m, so the climb is easy, yet the top looks out…
Historic sites & memorials
부여군
On the northern edge of downtown Buyeo, where Busosan hill meets the plain, lies a wide stretch of lawn. It looks like a park, but this is believed to be the royal palace of Sabi, Baekje's last capital from 538 to 660. In 2015 it was inscr…
Gardens & parks
부여군
In the fields south of the town of Buyeo lies a wide pond lined with weeping willows. Gungnamji, literally "the pond south of the palace", was made south of the royal palace when Sabi, today's Buyeo, was the capital of the Baekje kingdom.…
Churches & monasteries
부여군
On the slopes of Mansusan, Muryangsa is remembered for its Geungnakjeon Hall, which looks two-storeyed from outside but is one tall open space inside, and for the Goryeo pagoda and stone lantern lined up in front of it. The Joseon writer K…