A Port Remembered in Red Brick and Granite: A Walk Through Haemangno's Modern Architecture

Stand in front of 244-7 Haemangno and a one-story classical building catches your eye, as grand as any Korean bank or provincial government hall. The Former Gunsan Customs House Main Building, completed in June 1908 to a design by the Construction Office of the Korean Empire's Ministry of Finance, is today's Honam Customs Museum.

Belgian red brick and granite were laid in alternating courses on basalt foundation stones. The steep roof was covered with copper sheets and slate and topped with three pointed towers. This building blends French, German and British architectural styles. Its grounds once held many annex buildings, but now only the main building remains in its original form, attesting to the scale of Gunsan Port in the early open-port years.

Walk east from the customs house main building along Haemang-ro, and bank buildings appear one after another. They were the two pillars of financial exploitation under Japanese rule. The first you meet, the Former Japanese 18th Bank Gunsan Branch, was the seventh branch in Joseon, opened in 1907 by a bank headquartered in Nagasaki, Japan.

Its layout is distinctive, with a 2-story vault wing attached to the right of the single-story main building. Thick iron plates cover the outer windows, giving it a closed-off look. The annex behind the main building is a trace of the agricultural company that the 18th Bank set up to ship out rice and force land sales. Now refurbished as the Gunsan Modern Art Museum, it opens the sculpture park in the courtyard, the exhibition hall in the main building and the small gallery in the vault wing free of charge.

Across the street, the Gunsan Modern Architecture Museum occupies the restored building of the Former Joseon Bank Gunsan Branch, built in 1922. This 2-story building also appears in Chae Man-sik's novel Tangnyu. With granite around the upper outer walls and Spanish tiles on the roof, it stood as the heaviest landmark on Haemangno in its day.

At the center of the three buildings stands the Gunsan Modern History Museum. One combined ticket covers the museum, Gunsan Modern Architecture Museum, Gunsan Modern Art Museum and Jinpo Marine Park. Pass the 1930s Time Travel Village on the museum's 3rd floor and step out toward Jinpo Marine Park on the inner harbor. There, the West Sea wind blows over the site of General Choe Mu-seon's late-Goryeo victory at Jinpo and the deck of the Wibongham warship.

The Haemang-ro modern architecture belt lies within a 500 m radius from first stop to last, so two to three hours on foot is enough to see it. Gunsan Modern Art Museum (Former Japanese 18th Bank Gunsan Branch) and Honam Customs Museum are free to enter, and the Gunsan Modern History Museum and Gunsan Modern Architecture Museum take a single ticket or the combined ticket.

All four close every Monday and on January 1, so check the day of the week first. The most relaxed plan is to park right after opening at 09:00 or 10:00. Use the museum parking lot or the free parking spaces around the inner harbor. Then take in the texture of the red brick walls in the low morning light.