Seonjeongneung Royal Tombs
선정릉
It sells monthly and lunchtime passes, which tells you what it mostly is: a working park that office workers and neighbours walk through, which happens to contain two royal tombs. Under-25s get in free, so for most young travellers the ticket price is irrelevant.
Language
Place information
- Korean name
- 선정릉
- Address
- 1 Seolleung-ro 100-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
- Opening hours
- Mar–Oct 06:00–21:00 (last entry 20:00) Jan, Nov–Dec 06:00–17:30 (last entry 16:30) Feb 06:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00)
- Closed
- Every Mon (closed the following day instead if it falls on a public holiday)
- Hours notes
- The grounds take about an hour to walk. Early hours for the timed-admission pass are 06:30–09:00 from November to January. For November to January, the Royal Tombs visitor information gives an opening time of 06:00, while the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre's general visiting-hours table gives 06:30. The hours shown above follow the Royal Tombs visitor information. Check the opening time before visiting during those months.
- Guided sessions
- History hall talk Tue·Wed·Thu·Fri·Sat·Sun 10:00 · 14:00 In front of the Jaesil / Outdoor walk (Rediscovering Korea) 3·4·5·6·7·8·9·10·11·12 Sat 10:00 · 14:00 By the ticket office at the main gate Includes the Seolleung burial mound. / Outdoor walk (Breath of Korean Culture) 3·4·5·6·9·10·11 Sun 15:00 By the ticket office at the main gate
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Admission
- ₩1,000
- Operated by
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre
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 |
| Admission(expectant mothers under the Mother and Child Health Act, with one companion) | Free |
| Admission(registered disabled visitors under the Disability Welfare Act, with one companion where the disability is severe) | Free |
| the last Wednesday of each month, Culture Day | Free |
| Admission(residents of the host district, on proof of address) | 50% off |
| Group(groups of ten or more) | ₩800 |
| Monthly pass | ₩10,000One month from purchase, any time during opening hours. |
| Timed annual pass | ₩30,000One year from purchase. Valid in the early slot 06:00-09:00 (06:30-09:00 from November to January) and the lunch slot 11:30-14:30, with entry until 13:30. |
| Lunchtime pass | ₩3,000Ten visits within three months of purchase, entering between 11:30 and 13:30. |
What to see
Jaesil (Ritual House)
The ritual house is both the working quarters of the officials who managed the tomb and the place where the memorial rites were prepared.
궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)
History and Culture Hall
The Seonjeongneung 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, the story of Seolleung and Jeongneung and of those buried there, the damage the tombs took in the Imjin War, and the temples attached to them.
궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)
Seolleung - King Seongjong's tomb
Seolleung holds Seongjong, the 9th king of Joseon, and his queen Jeonghyeon. It takes the dongwon-igangneung form: one T-shaped shrine serving a single tomb precinct, with the two burial mounds raised on separate hills. Seongjong's mound was laid out to the state ritual code — girdled with a screen of stone panels and a stone balustrade, and surrounded by civil and military stone figures, a stone lantern and stone pillars. Seongjong spent his reign putting the dynasty's basic legal code and state rites in order.
궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)
Seolleung - Queen Jeonghyeon's tomb
Seolleung holds Seongjong, the 9th king of Joseon, and his queen Jeonghyeon. It takes the dongwon-igangneung form: one T-shaped shrine serving a single tomb precinct, with the two burial mounds raised on separate hills. The queen's mound is much like the king's, but the screen of stone panels is omitted and only the balustrade encircles it. Jeonghyeon was raised to queen after Lady Yun, Yeonsangun's mother, was deposed. At the 1506 coup she consented to Yeonsangun's deposition and to the accession of her own son, Jungjong.
궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)
Jeongneung - King Jungjong's tomb
Jeongneung holds Jungjong, the 11th king of Joseon. It was laid out to the state ritual code, its mound girdled with both a screen of stone panels and a balustrade, and set about with civil and military stone figures, a stone lantern, a stone offering table, stone pillars and stone sheep and tigers. Every stone object now on the mound was newly made when the tomb was moved to this site in 1562. Jungjong came to the throne in the coup of 1506 and set about correcting the misrule and the institutions of Yeonsangun's reign.
궁능유적본부 (royal.khs.go.kr, KOGL Type 1)
Jaesil (Ritual House) selected
Accessibility and facilities
The path beside the burial mound of King Seongjong and Queen Jeonghyeon at Seolleung is open year-round, so the mound can be approached on foot.
Nearby
Stories about this place
- Seoul's Five Joseon Royal Tombs Compared: Hours, Admission, Pairings
Taereung and Gangneung, Jeongneung, Heonneung and Inneung, Uireung and Seonjeongneung — all five Joseon royal tombs inside Seoul, compared on what only that one has, opening hours and admission, who each suits and how to pair them. Admission and the closing day are identical at all five, so where you go is decided by what survives at each rather than by cost.
- A Day Around COEX, Gangnam: Seonjeongneung, Bongeunsa, Aquarium, Library
Seonjeongneung, Bongeunsa, COEX Aquarium and Starfield Library all sit within about a kilometre of COEX; this is the order that gets you into each before it closes. It compares how each one shuts (weekday, season, last entry), indoors against outdoors, what changes on a Monday or in winter, and how to get between them.
