Key Museum

Key Museum

The Key Museum is located in Dongchong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, and is a museum themed around keys. Its deep reddish-brown exterior wall prominently highlights the distinct theme of "keys." The museum has five floors and is a comprehensive building that combines a café, art shop, gallery, and museum, where the museum section displays over 4,000 keys collected by Director Choi Hong-gyu since he was 19 years old.

The Key Museum is divided into three exhibition rooms. The first room is the main exhibition space, focusing on various Korean locks. The exhibits are diverse, ranging from iron locks from the Silla period to combination locks from the Goryeo and Joseon periods. The second room mainly showcases wooden furniture from the Joseon period, but the real highlight is the locks on the furniture—visitors can see locks used on items such as “portable food boxes,” “cabinets,” “seal boxes,” “portrait boxes,” and “hairdressing boxes.” The third room displays old locks from foreign countries. There are many uniquely designed locks here, such as wooden locks from Africa and pictographic locks from Asia. Visitors can admire locks from around the world while comparing them with Korean ones.

The Key Museum is truly a world of keys and locks. Visitors can travel through time—from the Three Kingdoms period to the modern era, and from Africa to Asia—to encounter a wide variety of keys from around the globe.

Lock Museum

Must-visit reason: One of the most unique museums in Jongno-gu

Continent where the attraction is located: Asia

Country/region where the attraction is located: Korea

Province/state where the attraction is located: Seoul Special City

City where the attraction is located: Jongno-gu