Pangyo Modern History and Culture District, Seocheon

Site details

The Pangyo Modern History and Culture District in Seocheon vividly traces the historical trajectory of a rural community in the modern and contemporary periods. The village prospered after 1930 when Pangyo Station opened on the Janghang railway line connecting Cheonan and Iksan during the Japanese colonial period, but began to decline after the railway station was relocated in 2008. The district encompasses seven modern-era buildings in Hyeonam-ri: the Former Dongil Rice Mill, Dongil Brewery, Modern Shop-House 1, the Former Samhwa Rice Mill, Modern Shop-House 2, the Former Reserve Forces Headquarters, and the Former Pangyo Theater. A settlement known at the time as Pangyo Village, now named Hyeonam-ri, quickly developed around Pangyo Station after its opening. It flourished to the extent that the township office, market, post office, and police station were all moved here from nearby Pangyo-ri. It was counted among the three major cattle markets in Chungcheongnam-do Province. However, when Pangyo Station was relocated in 2008 as part of a straightening of the Janghang Line, the village was spared from further development. As a result, many of the old buildings constructed between the 1930s and the 1980s, including the theater, Dongil Brewery, and Jangmi Photo Studio (found in a Japanese-style house) remain alongside faded signs. This earned the village the description of “a Village Where Time Stopped”. Visitors can slowly take in the atmosphere of a modern-era commercial village by looking for the old lettering and signs that still remain on the historic buildings.