Verified historic sites & memorials in Seoul — descriptions, map and practical info.
Selected city: 서울특별시
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
The two-storey villa attached to the front of Kangbuk Samsung Hospital is Gyeonggyojang. After liberation, independence leader Kim Ku lived here from November 1945, using it as the last seat of the Korean Provisional Government, and on 26…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In Suyu-dong in Seoul's Gangbuk district, with the peaks of Bukhansan rising behind it, lie the victims of the April Revolution of 1960. This national cemetery honours the students and citizens who took to the streets against the rigged el…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Seoul National Cemetery spreads over a hillside in Dongjak, just south of the Han River. Independence activists, fallen soldiers and four former presidents are buried here. Paths and a stream run between seemingly endless rows of white hea…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
On the way to Seoul National University, at the foot of Gwanaksan, there is a park with a red-pillared shrine. Nakseongdae means "the place where a star fell": legend says a great star dropped here when Gang Gam-chan (948–1031), the celebr…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
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 welco…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Every year at midnight on 31 December, the bell pavilion that appears on Korean television screens is Bosingak. This two-storey pavilion stands at the main crossroads of Jongno in central Seoul, and during the Joseon dynasty its bell signa…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Dongmyo, formally Donggwanwangmyo, is a shrine to Guan Yu, a general of China's Three Kingdoms period. A Chinese general's shrine in the Joseon capital may seem odd, but it is a legacy of the Imjin War, the international conflict of the 15…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Just inside the main gate of Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul Munmyo and Sungkyunkwan preserve a shrine to Confucius and the highest state academy of the Joseon dynasty within one walled compound. The old lecture hall and student dormitories…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In Joseon Korea the phrase "jongmyo-sajik" simply meant the state, and Sajikdan was one of its two pillars alongside the royal ancestral shrine of Jongmyo. Set on the lower slopes of Inwangsan west of Gyeongbokgung Palace, this is where th…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
The Samjeondo Monument is a stele that Joseon was forced to erect to the "virtues" of the Qing emperor Hong Taiji after surrendering to the Qing in the war of 1636. Its official name is the Stele to the Merits and Virtues of the Emperor of…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
On the east bank of the Han River, the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site is where Neolithic people lived in a village about 6,000 years ago. An exhibition hall built directly over the excavated house pits and a park dotted with thatched pit house…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Joseon kings are buried in royal tombs called neung, but this grave in Banghak-dong, Dobong-gu, is merely a myo. That is because it belongs to Yeonsangun, the tenth Joseon king, who was deposed after a reign of terror, and his wife, Lady S…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In the Bukhansan foothills of Seongbuk-gu, Jeongneung is the tomb of Queen Sindeok, second wife of King Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty. Once a royal tomb in the heart of the capital, it was pushed out by political rivalry and neglect…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In Gongneung-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, next to the national athletes' training village, lie two Joseon royal tombs. Taereung belongs to Queen Munjeong, third consort of King Jungjong, and Gangneung to her son King Myeongjong and Queen Insun.…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
A few minutes' drive from Gangnam's office towers, stone officials, warriors, horses and sheep stand in rows on grassy mounds among the pines. Heonilleung is the joint name of two royal tombs where King Taejong, the third ruler of Joseon,…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Seonjeongneung is a group of Joseon royal tombs in Samseong-dong, Gangnam, right next to the office towers of Teheran-ro. The name combines Seolleung and Jeongneung, where King Seongjong (the 9th king), his queen Jeonghyeon and their son K…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Jongmyo is the royal ancestral shrine where the spirit tablets of the kings and queens of the Joseon dynasty were kept and honoured with rites. It lies in the middle of Jongno in central Seoul, yet behind its walls the woods, wide stone co…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
At the northern end of Daehangno, beside the road that climbs from Hyehwa-dong towards Seongbuk-dong, a small city gate stands on a rise. This is Hyehwamun, one of the four minor gates of the Seoul City Wall, long known simply as Dongsomun…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Between the office towers and hotels near Seoul City Hall, a building with three tiers of octagonal roofs stands almost hidden. Hwangudan is the site of the altar where, in 1897, King Gojong offered sacrifices to Heaven, took the title of…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Hyochang Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, is a Historic Site where Kim Koo and other leaders of the independence movement are buried. Walking paths wind through pine woods, so at first glance it looks like an ordinary neighbourhood park, but eac…