Hyangwonjeong Pavilion of Gyeongbokgung Palace

Hyangwonjeong Pavilion is a hexagonal pavilion built on the island at the centre of Hyangwonji Pond, in the rear garden north of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The name "Hyangwon", meaning "fragrance travels far", was taken from "Aeryeonseol" (On Loving the Lotus), an essay by the Northern Song scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073). The pond and pavilion belonged to the rear garden of the royal residential quarters, where the king and royal family rested and strolled, and together with Noksan formed a wooded garden landscape. According to the Sejo sillok, the Annals of King Sejo, a pavilion called Chwirojeong was first built on this site in 1456, the second year of King Sejo, and lotuses were planted there. Hyangwonji Pond is a squared pond of 4,605 square metres with rounded corners, in which lotuses and water plants grow and carp and other fish live. Its source of water is a spring called Yeolsangjinwon, which wells up beneath the hill to the north. The wooden bridge leading to the pavilion, Chwihyanggyo Bridge, was destroyed during the Korean War; a stone bridge was built south of the pavilion in 1953 and used until excavation confirmed the bridge's original position north of the pavilion, whereupon it was restored in 2021 as a wooden bridge (32 m long and 165 cm wide) in its original form. In the wall on the Noksan side north of the pond stands a single gate called Inyumun, and to its south once stood a gate called Bongjipmun, which together enclosed the pond in an even more secluded atmosphere. Hyangwonjeong Pavilion is a two-storey pavilion that Emperor Gojong built in 1873, as he broke free of the interference of his father Heungseon Daewongun and established direct personal rule; as part of this political independence he built Geoncheonggung Residence and, in front of it, dug a pond with an island at its centre on which he raised the pavilion. A wooden bridge called Chwihyanggyo leads to the island where the pavilion stands, and Hamhwadang Hall and Jipgyeongdang Hall are located to the south. No precise record survives of when Hyangwonjeong Pavilion was built, but the name "Hyangwonjeong" is first mentioned in the Seungjeongwon ilgi, the Diary of the Royal Secretariat, in 1887, the 24th year of Emperor Gojong's reign; and when the timbers were examined by tree-ring dating during repairs to the pavilion in 2021, it was found that they had been felled in two batches, in 1881 and 1884, from which it is inferred that Hyangwonjeong Pavilion was built in 1885. In plan Hyangwonjeong Pavilion is a regular hexagon, with the upper and lower storeys of the same size. On a low platform finished with long dressed stones stand hexagonal plinths, on which hexagonal columns rise through both storeys. The bracket sets are assembled above the second-storey columns: the upper part of the columns is tied together with changbang beams, capital blocks are set on the columns, and false wing-brackets carved with rounded, grass-motif ends are placed above them. These support the first-tier hanggong cheomcha bracket arm, and a further block supports the purlin plate beneath the outer eave purlin, forming a mul-ikgong bracket style. On the first floor a wooden-floored veranda with a plain balustrade runs around the perimeter, and on the second floor a similar veranda has a baluster rail with curved posts. The ceiling is a coffered "well" ceiling, and lattice-patterned windows in a swastika design are fitted in every bay all around. The eaves are double eaves, and the roof is a hexagonal hip roof; at the central point where the hip ridges converge stands a jeolbyeongtong, a bottle-shaped roof finial, as ornament. Hyangwonjeong Pavilion is a space where the king and his family came to rest, and stands as the pre-eminent symbolic building set amid the beautiful scenery of Gyeongbokgung Palace's rear garden. With its hexagonal plinths, hexagonal plan and hexagonal roof composing a hexagonal space, every finely and beautifully finished element combines in an exquisite harmony, making it a pavilion of outstanding proportion that is of great historical, artistic and architectural value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물