Seoul City Selects 'Namsangol Hanok Village, Seonjam Complex, and Han Yong-un Simwoojang' as April Cultural Heritage Sites

Namsangol Hanok Village

Seoul Seonjam Complex

Manhae Han Yong-un Simujang

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 13th that Namsangol Hanok Village, Seoul Seonjam Complex, and Manhae Han Yong-un Simujang have been selected as this month's cultural heritage sites related to April.

Namsangol Hanok Village (Seoul Folk Cultural Properties Nos. 8, 18, 20, 24) opened on April 18, 1998. As part of the 1990 Namsangol Restoration Project, five hanok houses designated as Seoul Folk Materials scattered throughout the city were restored to reexamine the lives of ancestors. Additionally, a time capsule containing 600 representative cultural artifacts of Seoul was buried on November 29, 1994, and is scheduled to be unveiled to descendants 400 years later on November 29, 2394.

Seoul Seonjam Complex (Historic Site No. 83) is a place where, every year on the auspicious day of the snake (巳日) in the third lunar month (April in the solar calendar), the queen of the Joseon Dynasty held rituals praying for a bountiful silkworm harvest. It was restored and reopened after only the site remained when the shrine of the silkworm deity was moved to Sajikdan in 1908.

Manhae Han Yong-un Simujang (Historic Site No. 550) is a north-facing house built in 1933 during the Japanese colonial period by Manhae Han Yong-un (1879?1944). As a monk and independence activist, he refused to have his house face the Governor-General of Korea building and thus built it facing north. It was designated as a historic site on April 8, 2019.

The cultural heritage card news for this month can be found on the 15th of every month on the Seoul City website and Seoul Cultural Headquarters SNS (Instagram, Facebook). Kwon Soon-ki, head of the Historical Cultural Heritage Division, said, “We hope that citizens, who find outdoor activities difficult during the frustrating COVID-19 era, can meet Seoul’s cultural heritage through this month’s cultural heritage card news and feel pride in ‘Seoul, the 2,000-year-old historic city’ with its long-standing history.”