Tapgol Park

A small but historically significant park in the Jongno district, regarded as one of Seoul's first modern public parks. It occupies the former site of a Buddhist temple and preserves a slender ten-story marble pagoda from the 15th century, now sheltered under glass, along with a great stone stele on a tortoise base. The park is best remembered as the birthplace of the March First Independence Movement of 1919, when a declaration of independence from colonial rule was read aloud here, an event commemorated by reliefs on site.