Cultural heritage sites and facilities open at night

Event launched in 2017 features performances and exhibitions

A scene from the 2025 Seongbuk-dong Heritage Night Walk held last September. [Seongbuk-gu]
A scene from the 2025 Seongbuk-dong Heritage Night Walk held last September. [Seongbuk-gu]

The 2026 Seongbuk-dong Heritage Night Walk, co-organized by Seoul's Seongbuk-gu district and the Seongbuk Cultural Center, will run over two days — Friday and Saturday — across the Seongbuk-dong area.

Seongbuk-gu said Monday the event, which launched in 2017, is the district's signature nighttime cultural event, offering visitors a chance to explore national heritage sites after dark while enjoying performances, exhibitions, guided commentary and hands-on activities.

This year's theme is "There is a 'ga' in Seongbuk-dong" — a play on the Korean word "ga," which carries meanings of home, street and beauty. The program connects the spaces of Seongbuk-dong with the people who lived there and the art they created, so visitors walking the streets can encounter the history and culture embedded in each location.

Participating heritage sites include the Hanyangdoseong city wall, Simujang — where Buddhist monk and independence activist Han Yong-un spent his final years — the former home of art critic Choe Sun-u, Seonjamdan altar, the former headquarters of the Korean Martyrs Beatification Society and the Yi Jong-seok Villa. Cultural facilities joining the event include the Seongbuk Seonjam Museum, the Seongbuk Modern and Contemporary Literature Museum, the Woori Old Stone Museum and Yehyangjae. The signature program, "A Night Walk Through Memory," invites visitors to stroll the nighttime streets of Seongbuk-dong with cultural tourism guides who share the stories behind each site.

Performances and activities will fill the autumn night in Seongbuk-dong. Stages will feature local residents, university groups and arts organizations, alongside a performance by a holder of a national intangible heritage designation and a classical concert by conductor Adriel Kim titled "A Home Where Melodies Linger."

The event was also recently selected for the Cultural Heritage Administration's 2027 Heritage Utilization Project, a competitive grant program that supports experience, education and viewing programs built around local heritage sites.

Seongbuk-gu District Mayor Lee Seung-ro said he hopes the event will become "a place where residents and visitors can share together the old memories and living art of Seongbuk-dong."


ikson@heraldcorp.com