Heyri Art Valley

Flickr user Seongbin Im · CC BY-SA 2.0

A village the artists built themselves, under a rule that nothing rises above three storeys and no wall gets painted white.

Heyri is a village of some three hundred artists, writers, musicians and architects who bought the land themselves and then agreed the rules: nothing over three storeys, no fences between plots, materials left raw instead of painted, and the existing trees kept. The result is at once housing, studio and gallery — you push open the door of a concrete house and find a toy museum; the next is a café that is also a pottery workshop; the one after that is somebody's home, so don't knock. Sitting close to the DMZ belt, the village takes its name from an old rice-planting song of the Paju area.

Visitor information

When is the best time to visit Heyri Art Valley?

April–June and September–November

How much does it cost to visit Heyri Art Valley?

Village free, museums ticketed separately

How long do you need at Heyri Art Valley?

3 hours

What are the opening hours of Heyri Art Valley?

The village is open all day; every gallery, museum and café sets its own hours, and most close on Mondays

Did you know

Begun in the late 1990s by a cooperative of artists.
The building code limits height to three storeys and bans fences between plots.
The name comes from 'Heyri Sori', an old Paju rice-planting song.
Dozens of small private museums and galleries are open to visitors.

Travel tips

Many galleries close on Mondays — avoid the start of the week.
People live here; look for the 'private residence' signs before walking in.
There is a direct bus from Hapjeong station in Seoul, about an hour.

Source: https://www.heyri.net/about

Updated: 2026-08-05