Seoul's Five Palaces Compared: Admission, Closing Days, Hours, History

Gyeongbokgung is the first. It was built in 1395 as the principal palace of the new dynasty, and the city was laid out around it.

Changdeokgung followed ten years later as a secondary palace — a spare. It spent most of the dynasty being the real one instead. In 1484 King Seongjong enlarged the compound next door and named it Changgyeonggung, and from then on the two stood as one block divided by a single wall. That block was called the Eastern Palace.

The Imjin War burned all three, and only the Eastern Palace was rebuilt promptly. From then until Gojong reconstructed Gyeongbokgung in the 1860s, the working centre of the dynasty was there rather than at the principal palace. That is why Changgyeonggung reads as somewhere people lived rather than a stage for ceremonies.

Deoksugung and Gyeonghuigung came from outside that line. Deoksugung was a prince's house until Seonjo returned from wartime refuge to a capital with no palace fit to live in, and simply stayed. Three centuries later Gojong moved in from the Russian legation and made it a palace a second time; the stone hall belongs to that second occupation. Gyeonghuigung was the Western Palace, lost most of its buildings to a fire in 1829, and had the survivors demolished under the occupation to clear ground for a school. The school stayed until 1987.

Choose Gyeongbokgung. It was built as the new dynasty's principal palace and the city was laid out around it, and its throne hall, Geunjeongjeon, is the largest and most formal building inside it. The changing of the guard is held in front of Gwanghwamun — if you want to see it, check that day's schedule in the official notice.

There is a trade. Most of what stands is a nineteenth-century reconstruction, and this is also the palace the dynasty left empty longest. If you want the ground the court actually lived on, go to the Eastern Palace instead — Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung adjoin, so they walk as a single visit.

The five palaces side by side

Gyeongbokgung hours

Source: Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre — opening hours · Aug 4, 2026

Changdeokgung hours

The rear garden (Huwon) is separate timed-entry admission, capped at 100 people per slot per language — 50 online and 50 on the door — so it is not covered by these hours.

Source: Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre — visiting hours · Aug 7, 2026

Deoksugung hours

Source: Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre — Deoksugung hours · Aug 4, 2026

Changgyeonggung hours

Two details are published separately and are not the palace's hours: the Yulgok-ro gate opens on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and Culture Day with an earlier entry cut-off (17:00 to 18:00 depending on the month), and visitors are moved into the designated evening zone at 17:30 in November-February, 18:00 in March-May and September-October, and 18:30 in June-August.

Source: Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre — visiting hours · Aug 7, 2026

Gyeonghuigung hours

Source: Korea Tourism Organization — Gyeonghuigung visitor information and history · Aug 4, 2026

• On a Tuesday — Gyeongbokgung is closed. Walk Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung together, one wall apart, or switch to Deoksugung, which stays open into the evening.
• On a Monday — Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Gyeonghuigung are all closed, so that day it is Gyeongbokgung alone.
• Setting out late in the afternoon — Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung stop selling tickets in the late afternoon, so move to Deoksugung or Changgyeonggung, which stay open into the evening.
• With only half an hour — free Gyeonghuigung fits that time.

Check before you go. At some palaces a closing day that falls on a public holiday is moved to the next weekday, so recheck the date around holidays. Changdeokgung's rear garden is timed entry with a cap per session, and the guard ceremony's schedule for the day should be checked in the official notice.

Unhyeongung is not a grand palace — it is the residence Gojong lived in before his accession, and where his 1866 wedding was held. It is free, three minutes from Anguk Station, and the right size to fill the gap between two larger stops rather than a destination in itself.