Jeonju Hanok Village

More than 700 tile-roofed houses are packed together in the middle of a modern city. Jeonju Hanok Village is the largest cluster of traditional houses still standing in a Korean city centre, and as you wander its lanes you pass the portrait hall of Joseon's founding king and a red-brick cathedral more than a century old.

History: a hanok quarter born after the city wall fell

Jeonju is the ancestral home of the Jeonju Yi clan, the royal family of the Joseon dynasty. The present village began to take shape around 1910. When Jeonju's city wall was demolished in 1911, all but its south gate, Japanese residents moved inside the old walls. In response, Koreans built hanok, traditional houses, around Gyo-dong and Pungnam-dong and settled there together. That is why the houses here are not country manors but modern urban hanok.

The area became a hanok preservation district in 1977 and an International Slow City in 2010. It covers 298,260 m², and 735 of its 947 buildings are hanok.

What to see

• Gyeonggijeon Shrine: built in 1410 to house the portrait of King Taejo, Yi Seong-gye, founder of Joseon. Burned during the Japanese invasion of 1597, it was rebuilt in 1614. The portrait is a National Treasure, and the Royal Portrait Museum explains how royal portraits were painted and kept. The stone at the entrance orders everyone, whatever their rank, to dismount from their horse.
• Jeondong Cathedral: a Romanesque and Byzantine-style church built between 1907 and 1914 on the spot where early Korean Catholics were executed. Its foundations are said to use stones from the demolished wall of Pungnammun, the execution site.
• Pungnammun Gate: the old south gate of Jeonju and the only one of the city's four gates to survive. It received its present name when it was rebuilt in 1768.
• Omokdae: the hill where Yi Seong-gye celebrated a victory over Japanese pirates in 1380. It looks out over the rooftops and is a good place to start.
• Jeonju Hyanggyo: a Confucian school first founded in 1354, in the Goryeo period, and moved to its current site in 1603.

Cultural venues inside the village

• Traditional Wine Museum: opened in 2002 to revive home brewing, a custom cut off by the liquor tax law of 1909, with classes and hands-on programmes.
• Hanok Life Experience Center: a traditional house with inner and outer quarters and courtyards where you can stay the night.
• Nambu Market: next to Pungnammun on the west side of the village, called "the market outside the south gate" in Joseon times. It is known for bean sprout soup with rice, sundae soup and red bean porridge.

Jeonju food

Jeonju bibimbap is made with rice cooked in beef bone broth, with bean sprouts added as the rice steams. Bean sprout soup with rice is traditionally paired with moju, a low-alcohol makgeolli brewed with medicinal herbs and cinnamon. From 2016 the village drew more than 10 million visitors a year for three years running.

Tripto tips

• Gyeonggijeon: open 09:00–19:00 in March–May and September–October, 09:00–20:00 in June–August and 09:00–18:00 in November–February. Adults pay KRW 3,000; entry is free on the last Wednesday of each month.
• Jeondong Cathedral: free to visit 09:00–17:00, except during Mass.
• Parking: the public car parks in the village charge KRW 1,200 for the first 30 minutes. Park at the free No. 4 public car park and take the free shuttle bus to Omokdae (10:00–18:30).
• Time: about 3 hours for the main sights; stay overnight in a hanok guesthouse if you want the quiet evening atmosphere.
• Watch out: the lanes are very crowded at weekends, so start early at Omokdae. The whole village is a no-smoking zone.