KOREATRAVEL LIST

Donggureung Royal Tombs

동구릉

Nine royal tombs in one wood, so the changing form of the tomb — from the founding of Joseon almost to the Korean Empire — can be walked in a single visit. Taejo’s mound at Geonwolleung is covered in silver grass rather than turf.

Language

Geonwolleung’s T-shaped shrine from the side yard, the burial mound rising on the hill behind it and small ancillary buildings standing to either side

Place information

Korean name
동구릉
Address
197 Donggureung-ro, Guri, Gyeonggi-do
Opening hours
Feb–May, Sep–Oct 06:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00) Jun–Aug 06:00–18:30 (last entry 17:30) Jan, Nov–Dec 06:30–17:30 (last entry 16:30)
Closed
Every Mon (open if it falls on a public holiday; closed the next weekday instead)
Time needed
2 hours
Admission
₩1,000
Operated by
Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre
Google Maps Naver Map KakaoMapOfficial site

Prices

Adult(domestic visitors 25-64, foreign visitors 19-64)₩1,000
Admission(Korean nationals aged 24 and under or 65 and over (photo ID required))Free
Admission(foreign visitors aged 18 and under or 65 and over)Free
Admission(visitors wearing hanbok, including modernised hanbok)Free
the last Wednesday of each month, Culture DayFree
Group(groups of ten or more)₩800

Source: Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre — royal tomb admission ·

What to see

Inside Donggureung’s history and culture hall: yellow interpretive panels along the left wall, and shelf upon shelf of white miniature tomb statuary ranged along the right

History and Culture Hall

Donggureung’s history and culture hall first opened in 2011 and was reorganised in 2021. Its displays cover the Joseon royal tombs as a World Heritage site, Donggureung and the people buried in it, and the treasures the precinct holds.

궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)

History and Culture Hall selected

Nearby

Gangneung’s two mounds side by side with the civil and military figures facing each other in front, showing its twin-mound form

Taereung and Gangneung Royal Tombs

The Joseon Royal Tombs Exhibition Hall, which covers the tombs as a whole, stands inside this precinct. If several tombs are on the itinerary, starting here is what makes the rest legible.

Sareung’s T-shaped shrine and the ridge behind it, the stone figures of the burial ground visible up the grass slope among the pines

Sareung Royal Tomb

The tomb of Queen Jeongsun, Danjong’s consort. She died stripped of her rank and was buried with the rites due a grand prince’s wife; nearly one hundred and eighty years later she was restored, and the grave became a royal tomb.

Hongneung from the red spirit gate: stone figures ranged along both sides of the path to the sleeping hall, and the burial mound on the hill directly behind it

Hongneung and Yureung Imperial Tombs

Imperial tombs of the Korean Empire, so the form departs from every other Joseon royal tomb: a sleeping hall in place of the T-shaped shrine, and stone qilin, elephants and camels lining the approach. The graves of the imperial family lie inside the same walls.

Uireung’s T-shaped shrine from above, with the two burial mounds stacked one above the other on the hill behind

Uireung Royal Tomb

The former KCIA auditorium still stands inside the tomb walls. The July 4th North-South Joint Statement was announced in that building, so a Joseon royal tomb and twentieth-century political history share one precinct.

Stories about this place

  • Gyeonggi's Joseon Royal Tombs: 12 Compared by Fee, Hours and Area

    All twelve Joseon royal tomb precincts in Gyeonggi Province, compared on how many tombs each gathers, what can only be seen there, admission and opening time, with how to group them by city for a day out. All twelve close on Mondays; Yeoju's Yeongneung and Yeongneung and Yangju's Olleung differ on admission, and Donggureung, Seooreung and Gimpo Jangneung open earlier.

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Where these facts come from