My family and I are such huge museum fans. We love museums so much that we make it a point to visit one or two in the places that we travel to. In Korea alone, we've been to a dozen different museums - but that's just a small fraction of the total number of museums and galleries in this culture rich country.
(Korea has over 500 museums throughout the nation.)
Last spring, we had the chance to visit yet another museum in the capital - the
Seoul Museum of History, located in the bustling Jongno district.
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| Seoul Museum of History. |
Opened to the public in 2002, the
Seoul Museum of History was established to provide visitors an in-depth knowledge of the city of
Seoul through interesting and meaningful exhibitions. The main exhibition hall, located on the third floor, charts the history of Seoul since the Joseon dynasty.
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| Seoul during the Joseon era, a diorama. |
More of Seoul Museum of History after the jump!
This area is divided into four chronological zones, starting with the Joseon Dynasty, moving on to the Daehan Empire, then the Japanese occupation, and finally the development of Seoul after its liberation from Japan.
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| Market stall during the Joseon era. |
This floor also houses the
Seoul Panoramic Theater, where you can find a huge, realistic, and breathtaking miniature model of Seoul. Under the theme of '
Seoul, Now and in the Making', the miniature model is displayed in a 317.29 square meter space and lets you view the entire city at a glance.
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| Miniature model of Seoul. |
On the first floor, you will find the
Exhibition Hall of Donated Relics. This area displays pre-modern and modern relics, donated mostly by patrons of the Seoul Museum of History. We spent a good part of our visit in this area, as Yue was particularly drawn to this exhibit -
Seoul's Playroom in the 90s.
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| Seoul's Playroom in the 90s. |
I enjoyed this exhibition just as much - seeing those old school desktop computers, floppy disks, beepers, VHS and Betamax tapes, was like reliving the carefree days of my childhood. Very nostalgic, indeed.
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| Arcade games! |
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| Computers/word processors. |
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| OMG floppy disks! |
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| Beepers and analog phones! |
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| 90's lifestyle. |
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| Reply 1994! |
They even have a display of
manhwas (comic books), with characters that I'm all too familiar with. Yue knows some of them too, thanks to YouTube videos and the Animax channel.
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| 90's kid starter pack. :) |
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| Manhwa: an introduction. |
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| Comic books! |
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| Any kid from the 80's/90's would know these characters. :) |
Also situated on this floor is the exhibition hall of
Unhyeongung Palace, which displays relics from the private residence of Prince Regent Heungseon.
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| Exhibition Hall 4: Unhyeongung Palace. |
More than 6000 relics have been donated to the museum by the descendants of Regent Heungseon, and through these relics, visitors will be able '
sense' the culture of the last royal family of Joseon.
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| Mahjong tiles, and an old photo of the Unhyeongung Palace. |
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| Furniture from Unhyeongung Palace. |
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| Century-old (makeup) paraphernalia. |
In the adjacent hall, you will find the relics from noble families who lived in Hanyang, now known as modern day Seoul.
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| Exhibition Hall 3: High ranking officials in Hanyang. |
The high-ranking officials are mostly scholars who studied Confucianism at an early age and took government positions after passing the state examinations. As you look at these relics, which were passed down through several generations, you'll get a glimpse of the 'affluent' lifestyles of the nobles and how it was like to be living in the capital back in the days of Joseon.
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| Antique textbook and paint brushes. |
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| Old scriptures. Really old. |
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| OOTD, circa Joseon. |
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| Identification tags. |
The
Seoul Museum of History also has an outdoor exhibit area which features relics such as pagodas, monuments, stone figures - even materials from the old Gwanghwamun Gate!
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| Materials from the previous Gwanghwamun Gate. |
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| Monument of Prince Eunsingun, fourth son of Crown Prince Sado. |
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| Street car from the 1930's. |
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| Stone figures of civil officials. |
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| Stone figures which stood in front of tombs of the royal family. |
And like most museums, they also have a souvenir shop which sells items such as key rings, bag charms, trinket cases, and figurines.
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| Souvenir shop. |
Yue and I chose to commemorate this trip to the Seoul Museum of History not by buying souvenirs, but by taking photos at the photo booth/postcard maker located near the souvenir shop.
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| Say cheese! :) |
We really took our time
(and had a lot of fun while we were at it) in taking our photos - choosing our costumes, picking the background, making sure the camera captures our faces properly, haha! Thankfully, we had the photo booth to ourselves and there were no other people waiting in line to have their photos taken.
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| I'm the Queen! |
The photos were then sent to my email, and I had them printed as soon as we got home. They make pretty good souvenirs, don't they? :)
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| And Yue is a magistrate! |
To get to the
Seoul Museum of History, take the subway to
Gwanghwamun Station Exit 7 or 8. Turn right at the 4-way intersection and walk straight for about 500 meters.
You can also take bus numbers 101, 160, 260, 270, 271, 470, 710 or 721, and get off at Seoul Museum of History.
55, Saemunan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
+82-2-724-0274~6
What a great museum! I love museums, especially ones with old photos such as the ones you showed!
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