Gyeongju National Museum

The essential repository for Gyeongju's archaeological wealth, displaying artefacts recovered from the royal tombs and surrounding sites: gold crowns, gold earrings, jade necklaces, bronze mirrors, and celadon ceramics that represent the highest achievements of Silla craftsmanship. The gold crown gallery alone — with five different royal crowns and the gold belts, shoes, and sword fittings that accompanied them — justifies the visit.

Outdoor sculpture includes the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok and Buddhist stone carvings from temples throughout the region. The main building holds permanent exhibitions on Silla culture and a gallery of art from Buddhist temples. Admission free; closed Mondays.

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A story
The Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok, cast in 771 AD and now displayed outside the museum entrance, is the largest surviving bronze bell in Korea at 3.75 metres tall. The bell is famous for its sound quality — contemporary accounts describe it as audible for miles — and for a legend that the bell's tone contains the cry of a child sacrificed to make it ring true. The legend is false, but the bell's tone, on the rare occasions it is struck, is genuinely extraordinary.

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