Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
부산
Haedong Yonggungsa is a Buddhist temple set on the seaside rocks of Sirang-ri in Gijang, on the eastern edge of Busan. Known as the temple closest to the sea, it draws crowds who come to see halls and stone lanterns strung along rocks batt…
Churches & monasteries
서산시
Beside the Haemi Stream in Seosan, the Haemi International Sanctuary stands where more than 1,000 Catholics, brought from across Chungcheong Province during the late-Joseon persecutions, were executed and buried alive. It lies just over a…
Churches & monasteries
합천군
Haeinsa sits halfway up Gayasan in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and is famous for the Tripitaka Koreana, the Buddhist canon carved on wooden blocks in the Goryeo period, and for Janggyeong Panjeon, the halls built to store them. It…
Churches & monasteries
여수시
Climb the steps and the path suddenly disappears between giant boulders. Squeeze through the gap and you come out among halls clinging to the cliff, with the South Sea spread out below. Hyangiram, whose name means "hermitage facing the sun…
Churches & monasteries
홍천군
At the foot of Gongjaksan in Hongcheon, where a valley of broad rock slabs and clear pools begins, stands Sutasa. It is one of the oldest temples in the inland western part of Gangwon, with a late Joseon main hall, clay statues of the Four…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
Hwagyesa is a Jogye Order temple on the south-eastern slopes of Bukhansan, just above the houses of Suyu-dong in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. You can walk there from a metro station, yet the temple is wrapped in forest and a mountain stream. In 1933…
Churches & monasteries
화성시
Yongjusa is the temple King Jeongjo of Joseon rebuilt to console the spirit of his father, Crown Prince Sado, who died a cruel death. Because it served as the guardian temple of Sado's royal tomb, it is a mountain temple with traces of pal…
Churches & monasteries
화순군
Unjusa lies in a valley on the west side of Cheontaesan in Hwasun. You do not come here for a grand main hall; you come to walk the valley floor and the ridges on either side, seeking out the stone Buddhas and stone pagodas scattered among…
Churches & monasteries
횡성군
In a valley in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, a red-brick bell tower rises from a low hill. Pungsuwon Catholic Church began as a village of believers hiding from persecution, and the church itself was designed by a Korean priest and built b…