National Lighthouse Museum

The museum begins with a lighthouse that still works

Homigot Lighthouse first shone on 20 December 1908. The 26.4-metre octagonal tower was built from brick without reinforcing rods; six floors rise behind a white exterior, with pear-blossom emblems on the ceilings and 108 cast-iron steps inside. It remains an active aid to navigation on the cape

The museum grew from that object. After Homigot Lighthouse became Korea’s first lighthouse designated as cultural heritage, a museum was established in 1985 to preserve navigation equipment and records that were disappearing from everyday use. It reopened under the National Lighthouse Museum name in 2002, then expanded again in 2022. That same year, IALA named Homigot Lighthouse its Heritage Lighthouse of the Year, adding international recognition to a structure that was already protected at home

The lighthouse outside gives the museum its physical anchor. Its continued operation also explains why the history of Korean aids to navigation was gathered and preserved on this site

Navigation becomes a set of systems

The galleries move beyond lighthouse architecture into the equipment that lets a coast communicate with ships. Historic navigation-marker artifacts and keeper records sit alongside hands-on activities that teach younger visitors how lighthouse and navigational-marker systems work

Homigot itself provides a useful real-world reference. The lighthouse currently combines a white flash every 12 seconds with DGPS radio navigation and an air siren. Indoors, those categories can feel technical; outside, they become three different ways of sending position or warning information across sea and weather

The 2022 expansion added a new exhibition building and renovated the previous hall after a four-year project. Exhibition and education space roughly doubled, giving historic objects, science interpretation and family activities more room across the complex

The expansion made room for play as well as hardware

The experience hall goes beyond blocks and crafts. A touchscreen lets visitors create Morse code, and a ship-navigation simulator asks them to read aids to navigation while steering a vessel. The expanded complex also added an indoor children’s play area, café and seaside terraces

That family layer works best when it stays connected to the machinery. A lamp or signal pattern is easier to remember after a child has manipulated a model, and the historic lighthouse outside gives the activity a fixed physical reference

The museum also keeps the human side visible through records and material about lighthouse keepers. Keeper records add the people who maintained systems that had to work every night to the technical history of better lamps, signals and navigation equipment

Before you go

The indoor museum is most useful before the outdoor displays and Homigot Sunrise Square. The active lighthouse becomes more legible after the galleries have explained light, radio and sound as separate navigation systems

The museum and lighthouse form one coherent visit, with the galleries supplying context for the full-scale structure outside