Namdaemun (Seoul)

Korean spelling
Korean alphabet :	남대문 (숭례문)
Hanja :	南大門 (崇禮門)
Revised Romanization :	Namdaemun (Sungnyemun)
McCune-Reischauer :	Namdaemun (Sungnyemun)

The Namdaemun ( kor .: "Great south gate" ; official name: Sungnyemun: "gate of venerable custom" ) is one of the three remaining historical city gates of the South Korean capital Seoul .

history

The 1904 gate with the city walls still in place

Namdaemun was the largest wooden building in Seoul and was originally built in 1395 under King Taejo . In 1447 it was completely rebuilt during the reign of King Sejong .

The city wall built at that time was originally built to protect the city from tigers. The gates were opened and closed daily. To signal this, a loud bell was rung. The wall, which was torn down from 1907, now only partially stands on hills in the north and south of the city.

It was badly damaged during the Korean War , but restored from 1961 to 1962. On December 20, 1962, it was declared National Treasure No. 1.

Destruction and reopening

The gate on February 11, 2008 after the fire was put out

The gate after restoration (2013)

On the night of February 10th to 11th, 2008, the roof was almost completely destroyed by fire as a result of arson. On February 11th, the police arrested a South Korean who confessed to having started a fire in the roof of the gate. The highest cultural authority in South Korea estimated the cost of the reconstruction at about 21 million US dollars. The project would take three years to complete. The reconstruction is facilitated by the detailed documentation that was created on the occasion of the last renovation in 1961–1963. On May 4, 2013, Namdaemun was reopened in the presence of the President of South Korea .

Southgate of Seoul in a computer game

A construction of the gate can also be found in the Korean MMORPG KAL-Online , where a reconstruction event was started after the gate was destroyed. The players have to collect fractions of the goal in order to hand them over to the "Reconstructer". Once a certain number has been handed in, the wall will be repaired piece by piece. For this event, part of a virtual city even had to be redesigned so that the gate could find its place in the first place.