Seoul Plans To Turn Gyeonghui Palace Area Into A Historical Park

Gyeonghui Palace. (Wikimedia Commons/Marcin Bia Wayek)

JAKARTA - The Seoul City Government, South Korea in the middle of this month announced the Gyeonghui Palace area, one of the five Seoul palaces built during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) and its surroundings, will be reborn as a large historic and cultural park about 10 times the size of Seoul Plaza.

As part of the project, the walls of Joseon's fort near Gyeonghui Palace and Donuimun, also known as the West Gate, or Seodaemun, will be restored and a large green space will be made new inside and around the palace in 2035, he said, quoted by The Korea Times July 17.

The city government said it would start working to build a historic park within the Gyeonghui Palace this year, planning to renovate about 136,000 square meters of space in the palace and surrounding public land over the next 10 years.

The main gates and other gates at the palace will be updated. Meanwhile, facilities that are not related to its historical context, such as vehicle access roads, will be removed to create palace forests and the king's garden.

Gyeonghui Palace, which was completed in 1623, is the residence of King Sukjong, Yeongjo, and Jeongjo before most of the palaces went missing during the Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. Donuimun was also destroyed in 1915 during colonial rule.

Although it is a large open space in the city center, this palace is not widely known by residents, and the daily number of visitors is only 1,500 people, compared to 57,000 people for Gyeongbok Palace and 28,000 people for Deoksu Palace.

The city government said four public institutions around Gyeonghui Palace, including the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office and the Village of the Donuimun Museum, would be included in a new historical and cultural park. While the Seoul History Museum, which was built in 2002 next to the palace, may be moved.