Independence Gate (Dongnimmun)

A granite arch that looks like a small Arc de Triomphe stands in a park in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Independence Gate (Dongnimmun) was completed in 1898 with money donated by ordinary citizens, on the spot where Yeongeunmun, the gate for welcoming Chinese envoys, once stood. The two stone pillars in front of it are what is left of that older gate.

History: a new gate where the old one was torn down

For centuries Joseon received envoys from the Qing court at Yeongeunmun, just outside the city's west gate. After the First Sino-Japanese War this gate was pulled down in 1895, and Seo Jae-pil (Philip Jaisohn), a reformer who had returned from the United States, proposed building a gate and a park on the site as symbols of national independence. The Independence Club was founded to carry out the plan. With the king's approval and donations from all walks of life, work began on 21 November 1896 and the gate was finished in 1898. At the time, "independence" meant above all independence from Qing China.

The design came from a foreigner, while construction was directed by the Korean engineer Sim Ui-seok. In his memoirs Seo only wrote that the designer was a Swiss engineer working at the German legation; a claim that the Russian architect Sabatin designed it has never been confirmed.

The gate became a Historic Site in 1963. In 1979, to make way for the Seongsan-daero road, it was moved about 70 m to where it stands today.

What to see

• The gate itself: 14.28 m high and 11.48 m wide, built from about 1,850 granite blocks around a central rounded arch.
• The plum blossom on the keystone: the keystone of the arch bears a plum blossom, the emblem of the Joseon royal house.
• The name plaques and flags: the front reads "Dongnimmun" in Hangeul, the back the same name in Chinese characters, each flanked by a carved Korean flag. Walk around to see both sides.
• The Yeongeunmun pillars: the two stone pillars in front are the bases of the demolished Yeongeunmun and are a Historic Site in their own right.

Good to know

• Who wrote the calligraphy on the plaque is still disputed: some say Lee Wan-yong, others Kim Ga-jin, and no reliable record survives.
• After the March First Movement of 1919, the flags carved on the gate became a symbol of the independence movement, and from 1954 the gate appeared on the back of the 100-hwan banknote.

The gate's long story

Seo Jae-pil first set out the idea of the gate in an editorial in the newspaper Tongnip Sinmun on 20 June 1896. The Korean edition stressed independence from Qing China, but the English edition of the same day spoke more broadly of breaking with fraud and corruption and of independence from Japan, Russia and the European powers too.

Early in the colonial period the Japanese authorities designated and repaired the gate, hoping to present it as a symbol of Japan's victory over China. Instead, its carved flags became an emblem of the independence movement, and very few colonial-era records about it survive. After liberation, President Syngman Rhee, a former member of the Independence Club, made the gate a prominent symbol of independence.

Inside the left side of the gate a stone staircase leads to the top, which is enclosed by a stone balustrade.

Tripto tips

• Getting there: the gate stands in Seodaemun Independence Park, right by Dongnimmun Station on subway Line 3.
• Combine it with: the same park contains the Seodaemun Prison History Hall, where independence activists were imprisoned under Japanese rule. Check its opening hours on the official website before you go.
• Time: 20–30 minutes for the gate, about 2 hours with the prison museum.
• Look for: the plum blossom on the keystone, the Hangeul and Chinese plaques on either side, and the Yeongeunmun pillars.