Sungnyemun Gate loses its title of Korea’s national treasure No. 1

Korea’s national treasure No. 1 Sungnyemun Gate has been renamed with the numbering indicator removed.

A new enforcement decree and a corresponding rule of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act took effect on Friday to stop assigning designation numbers to nationally designated or registered cultural heritages, said the Cultural Heritage Administration. The designation numbering system is not applied to national treasures, treasures, historic sites, national monuments, etc. That is, the South Korean treasure No. 1 Seoul Heunginjimun Gate has a new name of the treasure Seoul Heunginjimun Gate.

Once nationally designed, cultural heritages used to be assigned an original number in order of designation as per the Cultural Heritage Protection Act proclaimed in 1962. As the numbering system caused some misunderstanding that numbers are assigned in order of significance and value, controversy was stirred over the ranking of cultural heritages. In response, the Cultural Heritage Administration decided to abolish the current numbering system.


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