Goseong Dinosaur Museum

The museum is closed while its next version is built

The museum building is closed for a major reconstruction, with reopening planned for January 2027. The wider Sangjogam landscape remains the reason it exists: Cretaceous footprints survive along the coast below, and the redesigned galleries are being built around those local trackways

The rebuild is much more than a cosmetic refit. The redesign includes an 8.6-metre media wall, an immersive video room, live-sketch and other interactive experiences, new dinosaur skeleton displays and a geological sequence running from the Triassic through the Jurassic to the Cretaceous

Local evidence is being made more explicit. The redesigned galleries reconstruct trackways from Deokmyeong-ri, ornithopod tracks from Samrak-ri and sauropod trackways around Okcheonsa, turning Goseong’s scattered fossil geography into something that can be compared inside one building

Accessibility is also part of the rebuild, with barrier-free kiosks, Braille blocks and labels, lower display cases and mobile interpretation planned for the reopened museum

The coast remains the irreplaceable exhibit

Sangjogam County Park and the Deokmyeong-ri footprint site are the physical context the museum cannot reproduce indoors. Dinosaur tracks run across coastal bedrock among cliffs, stratified rock and sea caves, and the fossil area is protected as Natural Monument No. 411

The site preserves both dinosaur and bird footprints from the Cretaceous. Their scientific value comes from movement recorded in place: individual prints become trackways, and the surrounding rock keeps the relationship between animals, sediment and ancient environment visible

That makes the outdoor landscape more than an extension of the museum. Even while the building is unavailable, the coast still explains why a dinosaur museum was built here in the first place

A 2004 museum is being rebuilt around its local evidence

Goseong Dinosaur Museum opened on 9 November 2004 as Korea’s first specialist dinosaur museum. Its three-level building was created beside the footprint site, with fossils, skeletons and reconstructions introducing dinosaur biology and the Mesozoic environment

The current project preserves and reinstalls existing fossils while replacing much of the old interior interpretation. The shift toward Goseong trackways, interactive media and a chronological geology sequence gives the local landscape a clearer role than a generic collection of dinosaur imagery could

What is already clear is the direction: the new museum is being designed to make the fossils outside the building, especially Goseong’s trackways and walking sequences, the organizing evidence inside it

Before you go

A visit to the museum building itself is not possible during the reconstruction period. Sangjogam County Park and the coastal footprint landscape are separate outdoor sites and remain the meaningful option for a dinosaur-focused visit before the museum reopens

The previous operating schedule and ticket prices no longer describe an available museum visit; new post-reopening visitor details have not yet been published