Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHTS
SEODAEMUN PRISON HISTORY HALL
Now a museum, Seodaemun Prison History Hall was built by the colonial Japanese
in 1908 to house 500 prisoners. Up to 3500 were packed inside during the height of
the 1919 anti-Japanese protests. The factories where prisoners were forced to make
bricks and military uniforms have gone, but some of the prison-made bricks with
Chinese characters on them have been used to make pavements, and the whole com-
plex has been expertly restored.
In the main exhibition hall chilling tableaux display the various torture techniques
employed on Korean patriots. Photographs of the prison are on view along with
video footage, and you can go into cells in the central prison building. The most fam-
ous victim was Ryu Gwan-sun, an 18-year-old Ewha high school student, who was
tortured to death in 1920. You can see the underground cell where this happened, as
well as a separate execution building where other prisoners were killed and the tun-
nel where their bodies were secretly removed. What you won't see are details of how
the prison continued to be used by Korea's various dictatorships in the postwar years
right up until its closure in 1987.
DON'T MISS
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Exhibition hall
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Central prison building
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Ryu Gwan-sun's cell
PRACTICALITIES
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9.30am-6pm Tue-Sun Mar-Oct, to 5pm Tue-Sun Nov-Feb
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Line 3 to Dong-nimmun, Exit 5
SEODAEMUN INDEPENDENCE PARK
(Seodeamun; Line 3 to Dongnimmun, Exit 4)
Apart from the former prison, this park (dedicated to
those who fought for Korean independence) also features Dongnimmun, an impressive
PARK
