Gwanghuimun Gate

A short walk along Toegye-ro from Dongdaemun History & Culture Park brings you to a small gate with a single-storey pavilion standing beside the busy road. Gwanghuimun is the southeastern gate of the Seoul City Wall that enclosed Hanyang, the Joseon capital. It is smaller and quieter than Sungnyemun or Heunginjimun, but its history is unusually bound up with death in the old city.

History: from "gate of light" to "gate of the dead"

Gwanghuimun was built in 1396 together with the city wall. Its name means "light shining far in all directions". Because it stood near the sluice where Cheonggyecheon stream flowed out of the city, it was also called Sugumun, the water-outlet gate. Burials were forbidden inside the walls, so funeral processions left the city through Soeuimun in the west and through this gate, which earned it the nickname Sigumun, "gate of corpses". Records also say King Injo passed through it when fleeing to Namhansanseong during the Qing invasion of 1636.

After war destroyed the gate tower, rebuilding began in 1711 under King Sukjong and the pavilion was completed before 1719. The tower was demolished in 1928 under Japanese rule, and in 1975 road widening led to the gate being moved south of its original spot and rebuilt with a new tower. Sources give the distance as 12 m or 15 m. In 2014 it reopened to the public for the first time in 39 years.

What to see

• Arch and ceiling painting: the vaulted passage ceiling shows a blue dragon and a yellow dragon facing a pearl, similar to the painting inside Heunginjimun.
• Gate tower: a single-storey wooden pavilion with a hipped roof like the other minor gates, its ridges topped with dragon heads and seven small guardian figures.
• City wall: restored sections of wall extend on either side and form part of the Seoul City Wall trail.

Beyond the gate: the infirmary and the graves

In the late Joseon period the Hwarinseo, an office that isolated and treated the sick, was moved outside Gwanghuimun. Because it was also responsible for burying those who died of disease, the hills outside the gate filled with graves. The gate came to be seen as unclean, and when people counted the gates of the city wall they sometimes left it out and spoke of "eight gates". One interpretation links the name of the nearby Sindang-dong neighbourhood, "shrine village", to shamans who settled around this gate of the dead, but it remains only a theory.

Nearby

• Heunginjimun: the great east gate of the city wall, within walking distance to the north. Compare the dragon ceiling paintings of the two gates.
• Dongdaemun History & Culture Park: on the way to Gwanghuimun, with excavated remains of the city wall and the sluice gate through which Cheonggyecheon left the city.
• Namsan: continue west along the wall from Gwanghuimun and the trail heads towards Namsan.

Tripto tips

• Cost and hours: you can see the gate from outside at any time, free of charge. Check the signs on site for access to the upper pavilion.
• Getting there: it is a walk from Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station (Lines 2 and 5).
• Walk it: start at Heunginjimun, pass Dongdaemun History & Culture Park to Gwanghuimun, then continue along the wall towards Namsan for a section of the city wall trail.
• Time needed: 15–30 minutes for the gate itself. The walls are lit in the evening.