KT&G SangsangMadang

Top choice in Seoul


Funded by Korea’s top tobacco company, this visually striking building is home to an art-house cinema, a concert space (hosting top indie bands) and galleries that focus on experimental, fringe exhibitions. There’s also a great design shop for gifts on the ground floor. The architect, Bae Dae-yong, called his design the ‘Why Butter Building’ as the pattern of concrete across its glazed facade is said to resemble both butterfly wings and butter spread on toast.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Seoul attractions

1. War & Women's Human Rights Museum

0.5 MILES

In Korea the survivors of sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII (known euphemistically as 'comfort women') are respectfully called halmoni …

2. Modern Design Museum

0.51 MILES

The items displayed on the two floors of this small museum trace the history of modern design in Korea from the 1880s to contemporary times. Not much is…

3. Wau Park

0.52 MILES

On this hillside park, there are walking trails lined with wildflowers, as well as basketball and badminton courts and other fitness facilities, all well…

4. Gyeongui Line Book Street

0.59 MILES

This extension of the Gyeongui Line Forest Park is a book-themed pathway of bookshops housed in train-carriage-like containers. The street commemorates…

5. Gyeongui Line Forest Park

0.61 MILES

This 6.3km park, named for the former Gyeongui Line (on which it was built), is a narrow, long green space that runs along the discarded railroad tracks…

6. Jeoldusan Martyrs' Shrine

0.68 MILES

Jeoldusan means ‘Beheading Hill’ – this is where up to 2000 Korean Catholics were executed in 1866 following a royal decree, most thrown off the high…

7. Seonyudo Park

1.19 MILES

A former water-filtration plant on an island in the Han River has been transformed into this award-winning park. The old industrial buildings have been…

8. National Assembly

1.36 MILES

Home to South Korea’s parliament since 1975, the pleasant grounds here with a fountain and an elaborate hanok (traditional wooden house; used for official…