Korean guide placed at French royal basilica — first for non-EU country

A French-language visitor guide will be added at Jongmyo, the royal shrine of the Joseon Dynasty, while the Basilica of Saint-Denis in France will receive a Korean-language guide — the first produced in a non-EU language for the site. The exchange marks the first tangible outcome of an agreement reached at the Korea-France summit in April, and is expected to significantly improve language accessibility for visitors to both heritage sites.

South Korea's Cultural Heritage Administration announced Tuesday that its Palace, Tomb and Royal Shrine Headquarters held a guide exchange ceremony with France's Centre des monuments nationaux at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, located in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, on Friday.

Jongmyo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity where the spirit tablets of the kings, queens, emperors and empresses of the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire are enshrined and ancestral rites are performed. The Basilica of Saint-Denis has served as the royal burial site for nearly all French monarchs since the 7th century — all but three — and is regarded as the birthplace of early Gothic architecture.

The two institutions, sharing this common heritage as royal burial grounds, signed an MOU on cooperation in the cultural heritage field between South Korea's Palace, Tomb and Royal Shrine Headquarters and France's Centre des monuments nationaux on the sidelines of the Korea-France summit in April. The agreement covers broad cooperation in the preservation, protection and utilization of cultural heritage between the two countries, centering on Jongmyo and the Basilica of Saint-Denis as the representative royal heritage sites of each nation.

The guide exchange is the first concrete outcome of cooperation pursued since the MOU was signed. The two institutions agreed in June to produce a French-language guide for Jongmyo and a Korean-language guide for Saint-Denis and distribute them at each site. After a preparation period, the finished guides were exchanged in person in Paris on Friday, completing the distribution arrangements.

Jongmyo's guide collection now includes a French edition alongside its existing four languages — Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese. The new guide covers key spaces including the Jeongjeon and Yeongnyeongjeon halls and the spirit tablet chambers, with photographs and a map of on-site facilities. The Basilica of Saint-Denis, which previously offered guides in five languages — French, English, Italian, German and Spanish — will add Korean as its first guide in a non-EU language. The Korean guide covers the basilica's history, its current appearance during a reconstruction project that began in March last year, and renderings of the completed structure. Both guides have been available for visitors to take freely at each site since Friday.

At the ceremony, the two institutions also discussed their next joint project: a photography exhibition introducing each site to visitors at the other's location — Jongmyo to be showcased at Saint-Denis and Saint-Denis at Jongmyo. Details are to be finalized through further consultations. Personnel and academic exchanges to deepen bilateral cooperation are also planned.

The Cultural Heritage Administration's Palace, Tomb and Royal Shrine Headquarters said it plans to continue producing substantive cooperation outcomes in the cultural heritage field through ongoing communication with France's Centre des monuments nationaux.