Gamcheon Culture Village

The town of Gamcheon is located to the south of Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea. This area was built on the foothills of a mountain near the coast during the 1920s and 1930s, relocating here the poor population of the main urban area.

After the Korean War, the population of Gamcheon started increasing, with many war refugees moving here. In what was at the time a shanty town, people slowly started to build brick houses and, as even more people moved to Gamcheon, the village expanded greatly and became very crowded, with up to 30,000 people living on this mountain slope. The result of this fast and chaotic expansion was a maze of narrow alleys that go up and down the side of the mountain. However, the living conditions in the town were still poor in the 1990s and people started moving out in search of better accomodations.

In 2009, the local and national governments began a large renovation project to turn the area into the Gamcheon Cultural Village. Artists, urban planners, and residents collaborated to decorate the town and convert it into a cultural hub. New infrastructure was built, abandoned houses were restored and turned into museums and art galleries, while inhabited homes were repaired, with many roofs and walls painted with bright colors, hence the nickname “Santorini of Korea”. Commercial activities soon started operating in Gamcheon, and tourists began visiting the area, turning what was once a marginalized slum into a bustling tourist attraction.