The name Insadong (仁寺洞, Insadong) takes one character each from Gwaninbang (寬仁坊) and Daesa-dong (大寺洞), districts of Hanseong-bu, the Joseon capital. Today it refers to the main road running from Jongno 2-ga to the Anguk-dong intersection and the lanes on either side.
Where Tapgol Park now stands at the southern end of the street, there was once a temple, Wongaksa, built in 1465 (the 11th year of King Sejo). King Yeonsangun did away with the temple in 1504, but its ten-storey marble pagoda, made in 1467, still stands on the spot (National Treasure). Later, Tapgol Park, Seoul’s first modern park, was laid out on the temple site.
On 1 March 1919, the Declaration of Independence was read out in Tapgol Park and people shouted “Manse!”, starting the 3·1 Movement. 2 years later, in 1921, the Cheondogyo Central Temple, built at the proposal of Son Byeong-hui, was completed nearby in Gyeongun-dong.
From the late Japanese colonial period, antique shops gathered here, followed by traditional teahouses and craft shops. The Seoul city government designated the street a Street of Traditional Culture in 1988 and Seoul’s first Cultural District in 2002, to protect its character. In 2004 Ssamzigil opened, as if an alley had been moved inside a building.
Unhyeongung Palace in nearby Unni-dong was the home of the Heungseon Daewongun, where King Gojong was born and grew up until he took the throne. Jogyesa Temple, on the guided walking route, began as Gakhwangsa in 1910 and took its current name in 1954; it is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, under the order’s direct administration.