The Jongmyo Daeje royal ancestral rite [Korea Tourism Organization]
The Jongmyo Daeje royal ancestral rite [Korea Tourism Organization]

A pivotal review that could determine whether a major urban redevelopment project near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jongmyo can coexist with preservation of the area's historic cultural environment is set to resume. The outcome is expected to set a benchmark for future urban renewal projects and heritage protection policy.

The National Heritage Committee under the Cultural Heritage Administration will convene Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Government Daejeon Complex to deliberate on a heritage preservation plan for the Sewoon District 4 urban environment improvement project site in Seoul. It will be the first time the committee has taken up the Sewoon District 4 agenda in two years and seven months.

The Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation, the project developer, conducted excavation surveys from 2022 to 2024 and submitted a preservation plan for key buried heritage assets, but the plan was put on hold in January 2024. The then-Cultural Heritage Committee demanded a more detailed preservation proposal. As a result, the excavation survey for the Sewoon District 4 area was administratively left incomplete.

The survey, conducted in the Yeji-dong area of Jongno-gu, Seoul, uncovered traces believed to be an "imun" — a Joseon-era neighborhood security gate — along with building foundations and drainage channels. The Cultural Heritage Administration assessed the finds as having significant academic value, saying the buried assets include road and drainage systems that could shed light on access routes to and from Jongmyo and other major structures.

Foreign tourists visit Jongmyo in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Foreign tourists visit Jongmyo in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

The Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation has proposed relocating and preserving the key buried heritage assets and creating a "cultural heritage plaza" on the first below-ground floor to display excavated materials.

Under the Act on the Protection and Investigation of Buried Cultural Heritage, however, no construction may proceed on the site until the National Heritage Committee completes its review and the head of the Cultural Heritage Administration formally closes the excavation survey.

Tensions remain. In March, the Cultural Heritage Administration filed a police complaint against the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation, alleging it had conducted unauthorized drilling at 11 locations within the Sewoon District 4 project site. More recently, the administration sent an official letter to the Seoul Metropolitan Government requesting a corrective order to cancel a revised project implementation plan that the outgoing Jongno-gu district chief had approved and publicly announced in June, just before leaving office.

In 2018, the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Seoul Metropolitan Government reached a final agreement capping the maximum height of buildings in Sewoon District 4 at 71.9 meters, measured from the Cheonggyecheon embankment. The limit was set to protect the historic landscape surrounding Jongmyo.

The conflict erupted last year when Seoul revised its urban improvement plan and raised the maximum height to 145 meters — nearly double the previous cap. The Cultural Heritage Administration responded by demanding a Heritage Impact Assessment to evaluate the potential visual impact on Jongmyo before any further development, while the Seoul Metropolitan Government, eager to accelerate the project, pushed back, prolonging the standoff.

Another variable is the sweeping turnover in membership on the buried heritage subcommittee of the newly launched National Heritage Committee this year. The new members may hold different views and apply different evaluation criteria from those who led the earlier decision to put the plan on hold, raising the possibility that the committee could reach a different conclusion on the previously submitted preservation proposal.


terry@heraldcorp.com