Five-story Stone Pagoda in Mireuk-ri, Chungju

At this site traces remain of a Goryeo-period stone Buddha and stone cave shrine, and in front of them stand this stone pagoda and a stone lantern. The lower part of the base is made of square stones close to their natural state, without special decoration, and the topmost stone of the base sits above it. In the body of the pagoda, only the roof stone of the first storey is made of two pieces; all the other body stones and roof stones are each a single piece of stone. On the body stone of each storey, corner pillars narrower than the width of the stone are carved at the edges. The roof stones narrow sharply from storey to storey, which harms the balance and overall appearance of the pagoda. The underside of the roof has five tiers of eave supports, but because the eaves are short they appear to have six. The eaves are horizontal and the slope of the roof stones is very steep, with almost no upward curve at the corners. At the top of the pagoda, finial elements remain: a base plate supporting the finial, so large that it looks like a sixth-storey roof stone, and an overturned bowl-shaped ornament, semicircular in form. At the very top survives a long, skewer-shaped iron finial post, erected to support the centre of the crowning ornament. The five-tiered eave supports on the underside of the roof stones and the straight eaves follow the style of Silla-period stone pagodas, but the steep slope of the roof stones and the formalised carving of the pillars suggest that the pagoda was in fact erected in the Goryeo period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Chungju, Chungbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물