Glass Greenhouse, Iljasan Herb and Astronomy Park (일자산허브천문공원 유리온실)

The Iljasan Herb and Astronomy Park (일자산허브천문공원) opened on 21 September 2006, according to the Korean Wikipedia entry on Mount Iljasan, in Dunchon-dong, in Gangdong District. A June 2026 blog article adds that it was built over the Gil-dong water distribution reservoir, on the twin themes of herbs and sky, and that it covers 25,500 m². Gangdong District presents it among its tourist sites.

Its layout is symbolic. According to the district, the organisation of the space derives from the traditional Korean thought of the "three powers" (heaven, earth, humanity) and evokes cosmic space, with the Jami, Taemi and Cheonsi star enclosures, the constellations and the Milky Way; facilities and trees are placed according to the principles of yin and yang and the five elements. The same blog adds that the round inner circle represents the sky while the angular outer enclosure represents the earth, and mentions a sign at the entrance announcing an excellence prize from a Korean civil engineering and architecture competition.

The Korean Wikipedia entry lists a "herb botanical garden" and a greenhouse among the facilities of the park opened in 2006, and photographs of the greenhouse on Commons date from June 2017. A 2021 article from the City of Seoul calls it the park's "glass greenhouse" (유리온실).

The greenhouse is a glass building whose most visible element is a pyramid: a June 2026 blog speaks of a glass greenhouse "in the shape of a pyramid". On a Wikimedia Commons photograph of June 2017, the pyramid is made of gridded glass panels on a metal frame with prominent ridges, topped by a small mast; leaning against it is a low volume, glazed on all sides, whose gabled roof serves as an entrance vestibule, with a glass door. A view of the interior shows a brick path crossing this vestibule under a glass roof on a metal frame, between shrubs in terracotta pots, with the glazed slope of the pyramid in the background.

On satellite imagery the roof reads as a grid of pale panels with sharply marked white ridges, south-west of the circular herb garden. A 2026 blog notes that the greenhouse includes a place to sit, and a Commons photograph shows this rest corner inside. The greenhouse looks small in the photographs.

The greenhouse holds aromatic herbs grown in pots. The City of Seoul's media portal (April 2021) speaks of 120 species, the aim being to let visitors enjoy the scent of herbs even in winter, while a June 2026 blog counts about fifty. A Commons photograph shows, along a path, shrubs in large terracotta pots, without the sources naming them.

The rest of the park gives an idea of the whole: the city's article cites jasmine, echinacea and mint in the central herb garden, with a medicinal-herb garden and a rock garden; the blog cites chamomile, rosemary, lavender and lemongrass, and a tourism site mentions 150 native herbs (among them 당귀, 미나리 and 창포) and some thirty exotic species such as lavender and rosemary. Small signs present each herb. The city gives 120 species and 30,000 plants for the whole park, the blog 150 herbs and trees; here again the figures differ.

The greenhouse stands inside the park, south-west of the circular herb garden according to satellite imagery. The park is reached on foot by a recently built step-free deck path, suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, which starts from the car park of the Gangdong Green Way campsite, or by the Iljasan forest path from Jungang Bohun Hospital station on Line 9, about a quarter of an hour's walk according to the 2026 blog. The park is open at all hours.

The visit combines with the park's other features: the sunrise and sunset viewpoints, the "frame" that frames the sky, the tea served near the herbs, and the small astronomy dome, whose children's programme runs from July to September according to the district. The Gil-dong ecological park faces it, and at night the paving lights up with 282 coloured stars.