Ulsan Government Office and Naea

The Government Office was the central building within the old walled town of Ulsan, where the magistrate of Ulsan Dohobu (protectorate office) handled official business, and Naea was the residence where the magistrate lived. The Government Office was first built in 1681 (the seventh year of King Sukjong) by Kim Su-o, the magistrate of Ulsan, and its plaque was inscribed "Ilhakheon" by his son, Magistrate Kim Ho. In 1763 (the thirty-ninth year of King Yeongjo), Magistrate Hong Ik-dae rebuilt it and renamed it "Banhakheon." During the Japanese colonial period it served as the Ulsan county office, and after liberation as the county office's meeting room. It was restored in 1981; only the Government Office, Naea, Osongjeong and Hakseong Dohobu Amun were rebuilt, giving the site its present form. The Government Office measures six bays across the front and two bays on the side, with a two-bay wooden-floored hall (daecheong) in the centre and rooms of two bays each on either side. Around the narrow veranda in front of the room on the left runs a gyeja balustrade, a curved timber railing. The eaves are double eaves with added rafters (buyeon), the columns are topped with ikgong-style brackets, and the building has a hip-and-gable roof with long, sweeping ridge lines. Naea is an L-shaped building comprising four bays of ondol (heated-floor) rooms, two bays of daecheong, and one bay each of kitchen and raised wooden floor (numaru). This L-shaped plan is a form found among upper-class houses of the Joseon period in the Ulsan region, in which a sarangbang (men's quarters) and numaru were added to a straight-line main house, so that the main house and the men's quarters form a single building — a distinctive feature. Hakseong Dohobu Amun, the main gate of the Government Office, means "the gate of the Hakseong protectorate office," Hakseong being an old name for the Ulsan area; before this gate was built, a two-story gate pavilion of three bays called Gahangnu stood in its place.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jung-gu, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산