Gongju National Museum manages cultural treasures from northern Chungcheongnam-do region of South Korea. It houses over 1,000 artifacts, including treasures excavated from the tomb of King Muryeong and Queen from the Baekje period. The museum displays replicas of the royal tomb, as well as artifacts like the King's gold crown, belt, and shoes decorated with 10 spikes. The Queen's jewelry and 9-spiked shoes are also exhibited. Other exhibits include pottery, stone tools, and Buddhist statues from the Unified Silla period. The ITTP friends visited the museum and nearby Gongsan Fortress in one day, seeing the treasures of King Muryeong and enjoying the views

1. IT Technology Program (ITTP)
Visit to GONGJU NATIONAL MUSEUM
In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the ITP 540 course
“KOREAN HISTORY AND CULTURE - I”
Spring 2018
IBRAR (20175580)
Prepared at: Global IT Technology Program
Course offered by: Prof. Young Suk, Chun

2. Introduction
Gongju National Museum manages and preserves the cultural treasures excavated from northern
Chungcheongnam-do. It takes special care of cultural treasures discovered at the Muryeong
Royal Tomb in 1971. The Muryeong Royal Tomb is the tomb of King Muryeong (501-523) from
the Baekje Period, and his queen consort. You can view most of the relics from the tomb at the
museum. The current buildings were specifically built to exhibit these relics. Gongju Museum
has excavated many other relics and sites. he exhibit hall constitutes of 2 parts. It exhibits over
1000 relics, including National Treasure No.19 and No.4. The first room of the 2nd floor
displays the relics from the Muryeong tomb. It is quite a treat to view the golden belt, bracelet
and bronze mirrors. There is even a full-scale model of the Muryeong tomb for you to view.
The 2nd room of the first floor displays the relics from the Chungcheongnam-do area
chronologically. Outside, in front of the main building, is a garden you can visit after viewing the
inside of the museum, and you can see many relics which were excavated from the entire Gongju
district. An eye-catching sight is the two large stone bowls, used long ago to store water.
Between the relics, there are dozens of golden pine, pine and cherry trees, which are over 70
years old. It is an ideal place for visitors to rest. If you are looking for souvenirs, there is a
souvenir shop where you will find many cute souvenirs.

3. Directions
By Train
Get off at the Daejeon Station and use an intercity bus
Seoul : Seoul → Daejeon (takes about 50 min. for KTX, 1 hour and 30 min. for Saemaeul train,
1 hour and 30 min. for Mugunghwa train)
Busan : Busan → Daejeon (takes about 1 hour and 50 min. for KTX, 2 hours and 45 min. for
Saemaeul train, 3 hours and 15 min. for Mugunghwa train)
By bus
Intercity buses service Gongju from both Daejeon's Seobu and Dongbu intercity bus terminals every
30 to 50 minutes with all also stopping by the Yuseong intercity terminal en route. Tickets from
Yuseong cost 2900 won and take about 20 minutes.
Further services run every 45 minutes direct from Seoul for 8600 won, as well as from Osan, Suwon,
Cheongju and Buyeo.
At the other end, Gongju's "Old" Intercity Bus Terminal is a mere 200 m south of the main entrance
to Gongsan Fortress. Note that in open defiance of the label, the "old" bus terminal is still very much
in use and far more central than the primary one, which is on the north bank of the Geumgang River,
opposite Gongsan Fortress.
By car
The city is 125 km from Seoul and lies on the Cheonan-Nonsan Highway (route #25); switch from
the Gyeongbu Highway (route #1) at Cheonan. Gongju is also accessible via route #36 from
Cheongju and route #32 from Daejeon.
Address : 34 Gwangwangdanji-gil, Ungjin-dong, Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea
Address in Korean : 충청남도 공주시 관광단지길 34(웅진동 360번지)
Phone: +82-41-850-6300
Operating Hours:
9:00 am – 6:00 pm / Tuesday through Friday
9:00 am – 7:00 pm/Saturday, Sunday, Holiday
Admission Fees : Free

4. Gongju National Museum is located nearby King Muryeong’s Tomb and Gongsan Fortress.
From Daejeon to Gongju National Museum, we can use Daejeon Dongbu Terminal, Seobu
terminal or Yuseong Terminal. From Yuseong Terminal, it will takes around 30mins.
English Tour-guide is available if we reserve in advance. In Total, we need to spend around 2hrs
to completely see all exhibitions.
Below is the history of Gongju National Museum since 1934 until 2004:
Date/Year Description
1934 Gongju Historic Site Preservation Society is established. The group begins to
collect and preserve artifacts related to Baekje.
May 5, 1939 After construction of the museum is completed,about 500 people participate
in the inauguration ceremony at Ssangsusanseong (Gongsanseong).
September 1,
1939
The Association of Gongju Historical Artifacts officially establishes Gongju
Museum.
1940
The Association of Gongju Historical Artifacts manages the construction of
Sunhwadang, which is used for the exhibition hall of the newly opened
Gongju Museum.
December 10,
1945
The name of the museum is changed to Gongju National Museum
April 1, 1946 The museum officially becomes a branch of the National Museum of Korea.
October 12, 1973
The National Museum of Korea in Gongju re-opens in a new building.
August 20, 1975 The museum is re-organized, and the name is changed to Gongju National
Museum.
May 14, 2004 The museum re-opens after moving into its current building, the Ungjin
Complex
Inside Museum
When we first entered the museum, we saw information desk and the exhibition room on the right
side. Inside the museum are artifacts that were dug from Tomb of King Muryeong. In one section of
the museum, there’s a replica of King Muryeong’s Coffin with actual size. This section also shows
lots of treasure from that tomb.

5. The first floor is divided into several sections. First section consists of Replica of King
Muryeong’s Coffin and the room also decorated looks like inside the Tomb. Beside the coffins,
there’s remaining woods taken from Tomb that was the original material of the coffin. Although
it’s already more than 7century, the wood still in a relatively good shape and not decayed.
Interesting thing about this coffin, that the tree that was being used to make the coffin is
originated from Japan. This is no wonder if we see that during King Muryeong era, Baekje
dynasty is closely related with Japan.
Nearby coffins, museums puts lots of jewelry such as King’s head crown, Shoes, Earrings,
Necklace and lots of things. The interesting thing is the size of King’s shoes is indeed very big.
Tour guide explain that was due to he had to wear so many layers (probably like socks or other
materials) .King’s shoes also has spikes that is 10 in number. It was expected that during that
period, people had to survive during hard period. And Spikes is representing the King is stepping
the ground steadily and hardly.

6. The remaining Head crown was also made by pure gold. Others jewelry was either made by
silver or gold. In Museum, there’s earings of King Muryeong’s which has Jade at the end of the
earrings. The other sections of 1st floor showed Queen’s jewelry with actual remaining jewelry
taken from Tomb of King Muryeong’s. Several differences such as number of spikes that
Queen’s shoes are 9 instead of 10, and her earrings didn’t have jade at the end. If King
Muryeong’s has swords, Queen only have small dagger that was made by bronze. This was
suspected to be used for self-defense
.
Still at the same floor, this museum provides video room which showed excavation process of
the Tomb. At the 2nd floor, Gongju national museum exhibits pottery from paleolitics era up
until unified Silla. This gallery was named ‘Ancient Culture of Chungcheongnam-do’ which
consisted relics from several
places in South Korea such as from Dunsan-dong (Daejeon). National treasure #247 ( Gilt-
bronze standing Avalokitesvara), #148 (Stone Basin from Daetongsa Temple Site) , #108(Stone
Buddha Traid Stele from Unified Silla) and #979(Stone Seated Budha) can be seen here. There
are many stone-made tools that is being displayed in 2nd floor. One of them is a stone made
chopping tool that is believed to be used by people at that era to cut things. Beside Stone-made
tools, there are also bronze-made dagger that has height of around 28cm.

7. This Buddha shaped has height around 24.8cm and was made of gold. It is suggested that the
origin was during Unified Silla period. This lotus-shaped pedestal has the height of 100cm
List of Treasure in Museum
Below are list of treasure inside the museum. Information is gathered from internet and directly
from tour guide
Kings Related Items Queen Related Items
A crown made of
pure gold with
asymmetric design
.높이:30.7cm,
너비:14.0cm
Compared to
King’s crown,
Queen’s crown
only have one
item. Both were
made of pure gold
and designed
inspired by lotus
flower.
길이:22.6cm
Hair pin. Long time
ago, people at
Baekje Dynasty was
common to have
long hair, even for
man. This hairpin
was used as
ornaments and also
to keep their hair
neat. 길이:18.4cm
Queen’s jewelry is
more varied . The
picture on the left
is necklace and
bracelets owned
by the queen.
the picture on the
left side is King’s
earrings with Jade
at the end. Other
parts was made of
gold. 길이:8.3cm
Queen’s earrings,
is more sharply
designed and
without jade at the
end. 길이:11.8cm

8. The picture on the
left is belt and
ornaments. It’s not
in actual size
because some of
the part already
decayed and difficult
to re-arrange.
길이:95.7cm
This ornaments
shaped like a
spoon was
actually used to be
attached in a
piece of clothes
such as linen. This
is also become
symbol of Baekje
upper classes
Gilt-Bronzed Shoes
of King Muryeong’s
has 10 spikes and
very big in size.
길이:35.0cm
Shoes design for
both King and
Queen is the
same. Only, in
queen’s shoes,
number of spike is
9 instead of 10.
This is a foot-rest for
the king where he
usually put his foot
when laying down.
This thing was
made of wood
combined with
bronze길이:38.0cm
These two items
were evacuated
from Queen’s
coffin which is
known to be head
rest and foot rest.
Although many
historians believe
that the head rest
is impossible to
use due to its
design.
What left over from
King’s sword. The
circle ornaments
looks like a yin-yang
concept of Taoism.
When exvacated,
the round-shaped
ornaments was
located on the left-
hand side of the
king. It was made
with gilt-bronze.
The queen is
equipped by small
dagger that she
can kept in beside
her garments. The
size is no more
than queen’s
hand.

9. Trip Story with ITTP friends
We started our trip from Yuseong bus terminal with 4 people (Asem + Chuka+ Ronny + Ibrar).
This trip was organized by ourself. We departed to Gongju at 8.30am, it was actually 15mins late
because miscommunication with the each other at Yuseong bus terminal. From Yuseong bus
terminal to Gongju Museum it took around 50mins. After reaching to Gongju city then we took a
taxi for Gogju National Musem. We enjoyed our time there and saw lots of treasure that was
founded in King Muryeong Tombs.

10. After that we visited Gongsan Fortress, only 5mins from Gongju National Museum. This fortress
was really nice, if we go to the top, you can see a glimpse of Gongju.
We decided to finish early and departed to Daejeon at 2.30pm because we are all really tired. It
was really a nice trip.