Former Joseon Bank, Gunsan Branch

Built in 1923 as the Gunsan branch of the Bank of Chosen, the colonial central bank, to finance the extraction of grain from this plain and the wider business of the continent. After liberation it became a commercial branch. The front has a projecting entrance with five flat arches and a semicircular arch at either end, and granite blocks set into the wall standing in for beam ends. The hipped roof is covered in sheet metal and pitched very steeply, which is what gives the building its heaviness. It appears in Chae Man-sik's 1937 novel Muddy Currents, whose characters are ground down by exactly the economy this building ran. Reading the novel and then standing in front of the building is the intended order, and it is worth doing.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Gunsan, Jeonbuk

Designation

Registered Cultural Heritage · 국가등록문화유산