A Prison That Changed Its Name Six Times

This prison, starting out as Gyeongseong Prison, changed its name six times and operated for nearly 80 years until 1987, before being reborn as a history museum.

Key takeaways

This facility opened as Gyeongseong Prison in 1908, and its name kept changing afterward: Seodaemun Prison (1912), Seodaemun Hyeongmuso (1923), then after liberation, Gyeongseong Hyeongmuso (1946), Seoul Hyeongmuso (1950), Seoul Correctional Institution (1961), and Seoul Detention Center (1967–1987). Fact In 1987, when the Seoul Detention Center relocated to Uiwang in Gyeonggi Province, this facility's roughly 80-year run as a place of confinement came to an end. Fact It opened as Seodaemun Independence Park on August 15, 1992, and the history hall, built for systematic exhibition, opened in 1998. Fact

What to look for on site

A timeline showing the facility's shifting names across eras
The sequence of transformation from prison to park to history museum
The scale of facilities left behind by nearly 80 years of continuous use as a place of confinement

Editorial note

The fact that this facility's name changed six times, on its own, reflects that this site passed through both Japan's colonial rule and Korea's later authoritarian governments after liberation.