Baekbeom Plaza백범광장(백범 김구선생 동상)

About

Baekbeom Plaza sits halfway up the hillside along the way up to Namsan Park in Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul. The park is home to a statue of Baekbeom Kim Gu, an independence activist, educator and politician. The Baekbeom Kim Gu Memorial Association erected it in Baekbeom Plaza in August 1969 to honor his patriotism: his fight against Japanese rule to save the nation and his efforts to build a unified state. Plans for the statue began two months after his assassination, when a committee for building a statue of Kim Gu was formed. The site chosen was Namsan Park, where the Joseon Shrine stood during the Japanese colonial period. The statue was funded by donations from Korea and abroad. Sculptors Kim Gyeong-seung and Min Bok-jin based it on a plaster bust made during his lifetime, and it stands 10m tall. Led by the Baekbeom Kim Gu Memorial Association, founded in 1960, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 8, 1969, and the statue was unveiled on August 23, his birthday. A wide lawn spreads out in front of the statue, and a path leads up Namsan. The park also has an equestrian statue of General Kim Yu-sin, who unified the Three Kingdoms, and a statue of Yi Si-yeong.