Bank of Korea Money Museum (), is an economics and numismatics

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South korea. It was founded by the

Bank of Korea The Bank of Korea (BOK; ) is the central bank of South Korea and issuer of South Korean won. It was established on 12 June 1950 in Seoul, South Korea. The bank's primary purpose is price stability. For that, the bank inflation targeting, targ ...

in 2001. The museum is housed in a designated historic building in Seoul, constructed in 1912 and previously the head office of the

Building

History

The museum building, formerly the main and head office of the

(), is a protected historic landmark that was designated as National Historic Site No. 280 in 1981. Originally intended as the Seoul branch office for the

Dai-Ichi Bank The Dai-Ichi Bank (, ), known from its establishment in 1873 to 1896 as Dai-Ichi Kokuritsu Bank () was a major Japanese bank headquartered in Tokyo. Founded and developed for several decades by Shibusawa Eiichi, it expanded into Korea as ear ...

, it was designed by

Tatsuno Kingo was a Japanese architect born in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Kyushu. He was a Doctor of Engineering; conferred as Jusanmi (従三位, Junior Third Rank) and Kunsanto (勲三等, Order of Third Class); and served as dean of Architecture Departm ...

, a renowned Japanese architect who also designed

Tokyo Station Tōkyō Station (, ) is a major railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far ...

and the

Bank of Japan The is the central bank of Japan.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Ginkō" in The bank is often called for short. It is headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The said bank is a corporate entity ...

building in Tokyo. The construction started in November 1907, but the building's intended tenant switched during the construction. The building was finally finished in January 1912 as the headquarters for the

Bank of Chōsen The Bank of Chōsen (, ''Joseon Eunhaeng''), known from 1909 to 1911 as the Bank of Korea ( ''Kankoku Ginkō'', ''Hanguk Eunhaeng'') and transcribed after 1945 as Bank of Joseon, was a colonial bank that served as bank of issue for Korea under J ...

, the central bank of Korea during the Japanese occupation. Following the liberation of Korea from the Japanese rule, in 1950 the Bank of Chōsen was dissolved and the

, the central bank of South Korea, was instead established on June 12, 1950; however, the building maintained its status as the head office for the newly formed bank. During the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, the building suffered major damage from air raids, but was repaired from May, 1956 to October, 1958. Since then, the building was continuously used as the head office for the

until the bank moved its operations to a newly constructed tower located behind this building in 1987. From 1987 to 1989, the facade and

roof A roof (: roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempera ...

of the building were restored to their original design, while the interior was somewhat altered by replacing plaster with marble. The last office of the

left this building in December 2000, and the building was converted and opened as Bank of Korea Money Museum on June 13, 2001.

Architecture

Designed in an early 20th-century

eclectic style Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact t ...

, the museum building was partly inspired by a French chateau and

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...

architecture. It features a symmetrical and centralized layout with a floor area of 8703.5 square meters. While constructed mainly in concrete and steel, the outer walls were entirely made in

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

harvested outside

Heunginjimun Heunginjimun (), Dongdaemun (), is one of The Eight Gates of Seoul in the Seoul City Wall, a prominent landmark in central Seoul, South Korea. The Korean name "Dongdaemun" means "Great East Gate," and it was so named because it was the major ...

Gate in Seoul. The main entrance is greatly protruded from the facade to accommodate automobiles and is supported by four

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

columns, while the three out of four corners of the building are respectively flanked by three towers with

domes A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and

finials A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, or gable or an ...

. The lower section of the building's facade is decorated with a series of horizontal lines formed by protruding granite blocks, and the upper section of the building is decorated with detailed

pediments Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In ancient ...

, a dark-colored

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, and

balustrades A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

Pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

were also used, each adorned with a granite carving of a shield.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Jung District, Seoul Downtown Seoul Museums in Seoul Bank museums Museums established in 2001 Historic buildings and structures in Seoul Buildings and structures of Korea under Japanese rule 2001 establishments in South Korea

Building

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links