Donuimun Museum Village

Bizarre but nice.

Resting place in urban complexes for free!

Seoul’s old name is Hanyang. It is the name derived from the founders of Joseon Dynasty. The founders built a palace and a citadel. The citidal had four main gates. North South East West. The names had four pillars of Confucian Ethics (인의예지 benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom) The East gate used benevolence and the West used rightedousness for their gates’ names. East was 흥인문, (Heungin-mun, mun means gate and Heungin means suceesful spread of benevolence), and West was 돈의문, (Donui-mun, Donui means cultivation of righteousness). Outside of West Gate was Gyeonggi provincial government (known as 경기감영). In 1915, the gate was demolished, to accommodate modern transportation system. The nickname of Donui-mun was the New Gate (새문). Hence came the term 새문안 (Saemunan, meaning the district inside the gate). Today this neigborhood museum is a showcase of urban history of Seoul. It contains Seoul’s architecture and urbanism research lab (which used to be a site for Hyundai Steel), several traditional courtyard houses (used to be restaurants, now art shops and galleries), Adagio (used to be an Italian restaurant, now a museum that explores the urban history of this area. recommend that you visit place first to get an overview.), Hanjung (usd to be a Korean cusine restaurant, now also a museum that explains early 20 century history of the area). The neighbirhood museum also exhibits in 구락부(Club) two merchants, 부래상 (French who brought coffee to Korea) and W.W. Taylor (American who brought automobile to Korea). At the northern foothill, there are also a residence, a theater, a game room, a photo shop, and a barber of the past era. The project was an urban regeneration project that tried to preserve different time zones of Seoul using architecture relics and historical narrative as it’s means.

Highly recommended place not only Korean but also foreigners since this small town has all about our histories. Clean and well organized places. My all family enjoyed a lot and spent most of our days here. Nearer of Kyunghee Palaces.

It's a shame they tore the place down but it's great they have have made a museum.