Daeungjeon Hall of Seonamsa Temple, Suncheon

Seonamsa Temple on Jogyesan Mountain was founded by the monk Ado as Biroam Hermitage in 529, the seventh year of King Seong of Baekje, and was renamed Seonamsa by State Preceptor Doseon in 875, the fifth year of King Heongang of Unified Silla. It is said that later, in the Goryeo period, State Preceptor Daegak Uicheon expanded it further into a great monastery. The Daeungjeon Hall was burned down during the Japanese invasion of 1597, known as the Jeongyu War, and was newly built in 1660, the first year of King Hyeonjong. It later burned down again in 1766, the forty-second year of King Yeongjo, and was rebuilt in 1824, the twenty-fourth year of King Sunjo, in the form it retains today. Enshrining the Buddha Sakyamuni, the Daeungjeon Hall is the central worship hall of Seonamsa Temple, aligned on the same axis as Manseru Pavilion in front of it, and in the front courtyard stand, side by side, the East and West Three-Storey Stone Pagodas of Seonamsa Temple, Suncheon, both treasures. The hall, with a frontage of three bays and a side of three bays, is built on a natural-stone platform with columns that taper slightly from a wider base to a narrower top, their capitals decorated with dragon-head motifs. It is an elaborate double-eaved hip-and-gable-roofed building whose roof sides form a shape resembling the character 八, meaning eight; the bracket clusters, which both support the eaves and serve a decorative function, are placed not only above the columns but also between them, in the dapo style. Three sets of brackets are arranged on the front and rear faces each, and two sets on each side face, giving an impression at once solemn and ornate. In particular, the bracket structure on the interior of the building is finished with lavish lotus-bud decoration, showing the elaborate and decorative technique of the late Joseon period. The Daeungjeon Hall of Seonamsa Temple follows the general technique of the dapo style, but in its ornate architectural style and decorative features it well preserves its appearance from the time of its late-Joseon reconstruction, giving it important academic and historical value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suncheon, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Treasure · 보물