Main Hall of Jongmyo Shrine

Jongmyo Shrine is where the spirit tablets of the kings of the Joseon dynasty are enshrined. The Main Hall is its central building, also called the Great Shrine to distinguish it from Yeongnyeongjeon. At first it held the tablets of the four ancestors of King Taejo Yi Seong-gye (Mokjo, Ikjo, Dojo and Hwanjo); it later became the place where the tablets of the reigning king's four generations of forebears and of the kings and queens of merit of the dynasty were enshrined and honoured with rites. With the Altar of Land and Grain, Jongmyo was the most important ritual space of the state, and its architecture is of the highest formality. The Main Hall now holds the tablets of nineteen kings and their queens in nineteen rooms, one to each bay, beginning with the first room on the west. The building is very simple, with no ornament in any bay, but its nineteen bays run on so long that it is the longest single building of its time. It has single eaves and a gabled roof shaped like the character 人, round columns with entasis swelling at the middle, and a three-bay main gate due south. The Main Hall of Jongmyo realises in architectural space the highest formality and frugality for rites to the royal ancestors, and shows the outstanding creative art of Joseon architects.

AI Translation

Visiting

Opening hours

February-May, September-October 09:00-18:00June-August 09:00-18:30November-January 09:00-17:30* Last admission 1 hour before closing

Closed

Tuesdays (Closed the next business day if Tuesday is a holiday)

Parking

Available

Information

+82-2-765-0195

Visitor information: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 1

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보