Hwaryeongjeon Shrine, Suwon

This shrine housed the royal portrait (eojin) of King Jeongjo. During the Joseon period, buildings enshrining a king's portrait stood in several places across the country, but today only Gyeonggijeon Shrine in Jeonju, Mokcheongjeon in Gaeseong, Seonwonjeon Hall in Changdeokgung Palace, and Hwaryeongjeon Shrine survive. Hwaryeongjeon was built in 1801, the first year of King Sunjo and the year after King Jeongjo's death. At that time, the portrait of King Jeongjo that had been kept in the shrine hall (jaesil) at Hyeollyungwon, together with another portrait kept in Juhamnu Pavilion at Changdeokgung Palace, was enshrined here. The portrait currently housed at Hwaryeongjeon is a standard replica made after the original portrait of King Jeongjo was destroyed by fire in 1953. In 1804, the fourth year of King Sunjo, King Sunjo visited Hwaseong for the first time, performed memorial rites at the royal tombs of Yungneung and Geolleung, and held the jakheollye, a rite of offering a cup of wine, at Hwaryeongjeon. King Sunjo performed the jakheollye at least nine times during his reign, and King Heonjong, King Cheoljong and Emperor Gojong later also performed the jakheollye at Hwaryeongjeon. Hwaryeongjeon also regularly held the tansinje, a rite performed on King Jeongjo's birthday (the twenty-second day of the ninth lunar month), and the naphyang daeje, a grand rite held at the close of the year following the winter solstice. Between these, on the first and fifteenth day of every month, the magistrate (yusu) of Hwaseong offered incense in a rite called bunhyang. There is also a record of a special tea rite (byeoldarye) held in 1810, the tenth year of King Sunjo, in which the Naemyeongbu, the palace women's quarters, took part. Hwaryeongjeon, together with the royal tombs, was an important ritual site symbolising Suwon. It comprises a main hall, an i-an-cheong (a hall for temporarily relocating the portrait), a covered corridor, a shrine hall, an incense hall, a hall for preparing offerings, and inner and outer triple gates, making it a rare example of a yeongjeon — a shrine enshrining a Joseon king's portrait — that preserves the full formal arrangement of such a building. The site's official name was changed from Hwaryeongjeon to Hwaryeongjeon Shrine, Suwon, by notification on 28 July 2011.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suwon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Historic Site · 사적