Explore Seoul

A village of five Joseon-period hanok houses at the foot of Namsan in Pil-dong, Jung District, opened in 1998 on a former military site. The houses, reconstructed from homes of officials and commoners that stood elsewhere in Seoul, surround a traditional garden with a pavilion and a stream, and a time capsule for Seoul's 600th anniversary lies nearby.

Myeongdong Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul, a red- and grey-brick Gothic Revival church consecrated in 1898. It was built with the support of the Paris Foreign Missions Society; its crypt holds relics of Korean martyrs, and in the 1970s and 1980s it served as a refuge for pro-democracy protesters.

Sungnyemun, also called Namdaemun, is the southern main gate of the Joseon-era Seoul City Wall, first built in 1398 and rebuilt in 1447. A two-storey wooden pavilion stands on a stone base pierced by an arched passage; after an arson fire destroyed much of the woodwork in 2008, the gate was restored and reopened in 2013.

Jogyesa is the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, in central Seoul near Insa-dong. Founded in 1910 as Gakhwangsa and given its present name in 1954, it centres on a large painted main hall, the Daeungjeon, beside an old lacebark pine that is a protected natural monument; the temple also runs a templestay programme.

Heunginjimun, also called Dongdaemun, is the eastern main gate of the Joseon-era Seoul City Wall, standing at Jongno 6-ga. First built in 1398, the present structure dates from 1869: a two-storey wooden pavilion on a stone base with an arched passage, protected by a semicircular outer wall known as the ongseong.