Seoul was founded as the capital of the new Joseon dynasty, established by King Taejo, Yi Seong-gye, after he overthrew the Goryeo dynasty. The site on the Han River, chosen on the advice of geomancers and ringed by mountains, was laid out as Hanyang with a royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, a shrine to the royal ancestors and a defensive wall following the surrounding ridges. During Joseon the city was known as Hanyang or Hanseong, and it remained the seat of the dynasty for more than five centuries, until the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. After the Korean War it was rebuilt and expanded rapidly, and it is today the capital of South Korea, with a metropolitan area of more than twenty million people.
Before and after
- c. 1390The Kingdom of Kongo is founded
- from 5 August 1392 to 12 October 1897Joseon
- 1395Construction of Gyeongbokgung
- from 11 May 1395 to 17 October 1797Duchy of Milan
- 6 June 1395Founding of Seoul
- 1397Construction of Kinkaku-ji Temple
- from 1397 to 1523Kalmar Union
- 15 November 1397Birth of Nicholas V
- 1398Construction of Ferapontov Monastery
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 710 CEConstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque
- 990 CEConstruction of Château de Montsoreau
- from 11th century to 18th centuryHouse of Habsburg
- from c. 1113 to 1150Suryavarman II builds Angkor Wat
- 1239Construction of Alhambra
- 1420Construction of Kremlin
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 14th century.