Sontag Hotel () was the first European hotel in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, built in 1902. The hotel was sold in 1917 and eventually demolished in 1922. The 25-room hotel was bestowed to a German Russian, Antoinette Sontag, by

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Gojong. She was the sister-in-law of the Russian ambassador, Karl Waeber. It is said that she could speak German, Russian, English and also some Korean, gaining wider acknowledgement from the royal family. However, she was almost expelled from Korea when Japan's influence in Korea grew.

Location

Bestowed land was next to Deoksugung palace. Later, the emperor granted the hotel to Sontag, for whom the hotel was named after. It was also called the Guest Hall in Hansung and Sontag's Residence. Currently, it is presumed to be by the centennial memorial hall of Ewha Girl's High School. The first ''

Dabang A dabang is a Korean establishment that primarily serves coffee, tea, and other non-alcoholic beverages. Other words for dabang include coffee house, coffee shop, , , and . The word dabang can also refer to coffee shops like Starbucks. Starbuc ...

,'' or coffee shop, was opened in the hotel where most westerners resided in Seoul visited at the time. Several famous people, including British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and American writer

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

, also stayed at Sontag Hotel while on a visit to Korea. The first

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Stat ...

Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samur ...

, invited the authorities of the Empire of Korea here.

Miscellaneous

* In 1976, the notable writer, Cha Bum-seok completed his screenplay named "Sontag Hotel". Later in 2005, this script became transformed as a musical. * In 2012, Lee Soon-woo published the book named ''Sontag Hotel'' ({{Korean, hangul=손탁 호텔''),'' featuring the modern diplomatic history surrounding

Korean peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and life of Sontag.Korea Central Library
/ref>

References

Korean Empire Demolished hotels Demolished buildings and structures in South Korea Buildings and structures demolished in 1922