Sinmumun
gate of Gyeongbokgung in Seoul, South Korea
Sinmumun (Korean: 신무문; Hanja: 神武門; lit. 'Black Turtle-Snake Gate') is the north gate of the palace Gyeongbokgung in Seoul, South Korea. It was used generally by military personnel. The gate has generally seen little use, especially in comparison to the other gates. It was often closed.
It was built in 1433. Sejong the Great decided to construct the gate because of a traditional belief that palaces should have four large gates; there were only three at the time. Sinmumun was named in 1475; it is named for a mythical Chinese guardian of the north, the Black Turtle-Snake. That guardian is also painted on the ceiling of the gate. After being destroyed in 1592 during the Imjin War, the gate was rebuilt in 1865.
The public source identifies “Sinmumun” as gate of Gyeongbokgung in Seoul, South Korea. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sinmumun, gate and Gyeongbokgung.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sinmumun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.