Hwangudan Altar

Rites to heaven appear in Korea with agriculture and were being performed by the state from the Three Kingdoms period. A permanent altar was first raised in 983, then repeatedly abolished and restored, and finally dropped in the early Joseon period when the court decided that only a Chinese emperor had standing to address heaven directly. A brief revival in 1456 lasted eight years. It was rebuilt in 1897 for one purpose. Gojong renamed the country the Great Han Empire, took the title of emperor, and sacrificed to heaven here — the ritual that made the claim, because the right to perform it was the claim. The altar itself was demolished by the Japanese administration in 1913 to build a hotel. What survives is the octagonal three-storey shrine of 1899 and three stone drums carved with dragons, standing between the hotels that came after.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Jung-gu, Seoul

Designation

Historic Site · 사적