Cultural Assets to Be Protected Under Conservation Plan

The city of Seoul is devising measures to protect cultural heritages inside the city’s four historic gates. The gates are known as Heunginjimun (Dongdaemun) in the east, Donuimun (Seodaemun) in the west, Sungnyemun (Namdaemun) in the south and Sukjeongmun in the north. Seoul was surrounded by the gates and there are a number of valuable cultural properties inside them.

Seoul has implemented several projects to preserve traditional structures, including traditional Korean houses or hanok and narrow streets in historic areas. As part of such work, Seoul launched a project to preserve the hanok village of Bukchon, which led to an Award of Distinction in the 2009 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards in August last year.

As the city is currently renovating its downtown and valuable relics of the Chosun Dynasty are being discovered in the process, the Seoul government is drawing up a set of conservation measures to ensure that the relics are protected.

The plan maps out ways to protect cultural assets in each area inside the four main gates, to preserve and manage discovered relics, and provide a transparent database of excavation works. Construction firms will be notified in advance if there are cultural assets in areas where they plan to renovate in order to prevent any delays in construction.