Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall: Recording the Times of Gunsan
The Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall is a repository of Gunsan's modern history, preserving it in its original form. Visitors often say that this is where they encounter the city's modern past. Today, I'd like to introduce the Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall as a great indoor attraction in Gunsan.
The Modern Architecture Hall was formerly the Gunsan branch of the Japanese-run Chosen Bank during the Japanese colonial period. Built in 1923, it was a representative financial institution operated by the Japanese for colonial rule and played a leading role in exploitation. With the creation of the Modern Culture Street, it was renovated and restored in 2008 and now serves as the Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall, sharing stories about modern architecture in Gunsan.
I visited on a weekend, and many people were there to take part in the stamp tour. You could get a stamp from the iconic lighthouses of Gunsan, including the one on Eocheongdo Island.
[Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall]
◆ Address: 240 Haemang-ro, Gunsan-si
◆ Operating Hours: (March–October) 09:00–18:00, (November–February) 09:00–17:00 (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
◆ Closed: January 1st, Every Monday, Days designated as closing days by the mayor
◆ Admission: Adults 500 won, Teenagers 300 won, Children 200 won (Combination tickets are available for the Modern Art Museum, Modern History Museum, and Maritime Park.)
The Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall has two floors. The first floor includes the lobby, vault, branch manager's office, and reception room. The second floor also consists of a lobby and an outdoor terrace.
In the lobby on the first floor, you can explore stories about modern architecture in Gunsan.
Through the floor screen installed in the lobby, you can see the history of modern Gunsan. You can also get a glimpse of the lives of people in Gunsan during the Japanese colonial period through models of modern buildings in Gunsan.
The video on the lobby floor screen is much better viewed from the second floor. I recommend watching it from the second-floor railing.
You can also see models of various modern buildings that existed in Gunsan at the time, including the former Gunsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry building and the former Gunsan Station. Gunsan Station was a Japanese-style wooden building on a branch line of the Honam Line, with a spacious waiting room due to its open first and second floors. It was destroyed during the Korean War in 1950, but you can see it in model form here.
Additionally, a model of the former Gunsan Municipal Office building is on display. The Gunsan Municipal Office was also very large for a municipal office building.
As I mentioned, this place was the Gunsan branch of the Chosen Bank, and you can see the bank vault. The vault was quite large.
The ridgepole inscription from that time is also on display. The Chosen Bank, established in Gunsan, played the role of a trade bank, handling local deposits as well as foreign exchange transactions between Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and China.
In particular, one of the main tasks of the Gunsan branch was handling funds for rice being exported through Gunsan Port and loans for farmland transactions.
Next to the vault was the branch manager's office. The space that was used as the branch manager's office of the Chosen Bank's Gunsan branch is now used as an exhibition room showing 'The Chosen Bank through Artifacts.'
Before going up to the second floor, models of modern buildings in Gunsan were displayed next to the stairs. The first, a rural house, shows a rural housing style where people lived in groups in the middle of rice paddies, reflecting the Japanese attempt to exploit Korean farmland and labor as productively as possible. You can also see the housing styles of the Japanese people and the appearance of Gunsan Customs.
Reading Modern History of Gunsan through Architecture
When you come up to the second floor, you can see the stories of the Gunsan area by period.
Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall
????️Meet it in video
From the changes in the Gunsan area by period to how the Japanese landlords lived in Gunsan at that time, and the characteristics of the buildings during the Japanese colonial period.
On the second floor, there was also a door leading to the outdoor terrace. It was nice to see the autumn scenery and the sea of Gunsan from the outdoor terrace.
On the second floor, miniature models of Gunsan's modern buildings were also on display. You can better understand the history of Gunsan by looking at the models and reading the explanations of Dongguksa Temple, a Japanese-style temple in Gunsan, Hirotsu House, a Japanese-style house, the former Chosen Rice Trust Co., Ltd. residence, and the former Chosen Bank Gunsan branch, now the Modern Architecture Hall.
The Gunsan Modern Architecture Hall is not just a modern building, but also contains the stories of the arduous labor of Koreans, the tears of a people who lost their country, and the stories of people who rose above all that time. I hope that you will learn about the painful history and take away the value of remembrance as you tour this place.
Article, Photo = Reporter Lee Pan-yong
Source :https://blog.naver.com/jbgokr/224088515654
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