Cheongju Early Printing Museum

Museum on the site where Jikji was printed in 1377 — the world's oldest surviving movable metal type book

Address 713 Jikji-daero, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju

The Cheongju Early Printing Museum stands on the excavated site of Heungdeoksa Temple, where Buddhist monks used movable metal type to print the Jikji in 1377 — making it the oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type in the world, predating Gutenberg by 78 years. The museum holds over 600 artefacts related to Korean printing history and explains in detail the technology behind movable metal type and how it was developed in Korea centuries before Europe.

The original Jikji is held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (a fact that causes ongoing diplomatic friction), but the museum displays high-quality replicas and walk-through exhibits on the printing process. There is a demonstration area where visitors can try pressing their own print from wooden blocks, and regular demonstrations of traditional Korean bookbinding. The museum is free to enter and well-signposted from central Cheongju.

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A story
The Jikji, printed at Heungdeoksa Temple in 1377, predates Gutenberg's Bible by 78 years. It sat largely unnoticed in European collections until a Korean scholar at the Bibliothèque nationale de France identified it in 1972. The original is still in Paris, but Cheongju's successful campaign for UNESCO recognition helped put both the city and the book on the cultural map.

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