Jongmyo Shrine

The royal ancestral shrine, and the oldest Confucian shrine of its kind that has been preserved intact anywhere. It holds the spirit tablets of the Joseon kings and queens, and its main hall, Jeongjeon, is a single unbroken colonnade over a hundred metres long — the longest traditional wooden building in Korea, and possibly in Asia.

It does not look like a palace and is not meant to. There is no colour on it, no decoration, and no ornament: the whole architecture is a plain dark horizontal above a plain stone court, and it is the most severe and the most impressive thing in Seoul.

What it costs

A small admission, and it is on the integrated palace ticket.

⭐ Wearing hanbok gets you in free. This is a standing policy at all five palaces and at Jongmyo, not a promotion — rent an outfit from one of the shops clustered around Gyeongbokgung and Bukchon, wear it, and walk past the ticket window. It is why the courtyards are full of people in Joseon dress who are plainly not Korean, and it is worth doing on the day you plan to see more than one palace.

When to go

Closed Tuesday.

⚠️ Most days you can only go in with a timed guided tour, in Korean, English, Japanese or Chinese, departing to a published timetable. Saturdays and Culture Day — the last Wednesday of the month — are the exception: on those you can walk the site freely at your own pace, which is far better for a place whose whole effect is silence and length.

The Jongmyo Jerye, the ancestral rite with its own orchestra and dance, is performed annually in early May. It is the oldest continuously performed ritual music in the world and it is free to watch.

Getting there

Jongno 3-ga station, lines 1, 3 and 5, exit 11. The shrine is connected to Changdeokgung by a footbridge over the road, so the two go together.

If you only have an hour

Along the raised triple path — the raised centre strip is for the spirits and you are meant to walk beside it, not on it — to the court in front of Jeongjeon. Then Yeongnyeongjeon, the smaller hall behind, for the kings who did not merit the main one.

Go on a Saturday if you possibly can. On a tour you are moved along; free-touring, you can stand still in front of a hundred metres of shut doors, which is the entire experience.

What people get wrong

Arriving on an ordinary weekday assuming you can walk in. You can go in, but only on the next tour, and only at its pace.