Seoul City Wall is an important historical and cultural resource of Seoul, which has lasted over 600 years since its construction by the king Taejo in Joseon Dynasty. In King Sejong's and Sookjong's reign, the large-scale refurbishment works were carr...
Seoul City Wall is an important historical and cultural resource of Seoul, which has lasted over 600 years since its construction by the king Taejo in Joseon Dynasty. In King Sejong's and Sookjong's reign, the large-scale refurbishment works were carried out on the wall, and further repair works were continuously carried out since then. However, in the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism(1910-1945), the wall was destroyed in many sections like walls and gatehouses in the name of city development. Even after the 1945 Liberation, the damages on the wall were continued by citizens of Seoul. In 1960’s, the repair works were partly carried out in Soongnyemoon and Changeuimoon, and in the middle of the 1970's, Korean government began to undergo an extensive restoration project in certain sections of the wall as one of the cultural assets.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the contents and results of the Seoul City Wall restoration project from 1975 to 1982, and to find out it's achievements and limitations. For this study, various kinds of materials on the project which National Archives of Korea owns were analyzed and the contents and results of them were reorganized.
The project was begun by the order of president Park Jung Hee, and Seoul city conducted the work under the technical quidance of the Ministry of Culture and Informations. Seoul City established the Headquarter of Restoration and the Restoration Committee, and restored the wall by dividing it into eight parts : Samcheong, Sungbook, Samseon, Dongsoong, Kwanghee, Jangchoong, Namsan, and Cheongwoon.
After the project, the City Wall was restored at the rate of about 50% of the original wall, which cost about 5 billion won.
The biggest achievement of the project in this study was that it was the first full-scale restoration project on the wall by the government after 1945, so it could prevent further destruction on the wall. The other achievements are that the project was carried out with city planning and the authorities concerned made efforts to restore it to preserve the wall’s original state.
The limitations of the project in this study are as follows:
In the aspect of the purpose, it was implemented with a focus on reconstructing one of the national defense remains, not on protecting the cultural assets. In the aspect of the procedures, it was insufficient to meet the needs for a comprehensive restoration of cultural assets. There were no full preliminary studies, design plans, or appropriate methods of the construction on the wall. In the aspect of the contents, there were a lot of restorations which were different from the original states of the wall, which was the result of the short period and misuse of the materials of the project. In the aspect of the records and archives management, it has a lot of insufficiencies. There are no fully preserved records and the records that were kept were not managed well, so it is difficult to use the records from the restoration in any future projects.
In conclusion, the Seoul City Wall Restoration from 1975 to 1982 has a lot of limitations in the aspects of the purpose, contents, procedures, and records, as well as archives management. The outcome implicates to refer to it for further restorations on the wall in the future. In other words, there needs to be more sufficient procedures to restore Seoul City Wall as a world heritage of UNESCO, to give back Seoul City Wall's authenticity and integrity.