SeMA - Seoul Museum of Art

This guide to the Seoul Museum of Art traces the building's start as Gyeongseong Court, opened in 1928 under Japanese colonial rule and used to try Korean independence activists on a foundation laid by governor general Saito Makoto. It follows the courthouse through liberation in 1945, when it kept serving as South Korea's Supreme Court for decades under governments it answered to more than the people on trial. Stand beneath the three arched Renaissance doorways where the accused once stood, and notice how quiet the building feels now.