Seonhwadang Hall

This was the place where the provincial governor of Chungcheong-do carried out official duties during the Joseon period. General administration, military affairs, taxation, and important trials for the province were conducted here. It was originally established in Chungju in 1395, the fourth year of King Taejo, but was moved to Gongju in 1602, the thirty-fifth year of King Seonjo, becoming the centre of local administration overseeing the whole of Chungcheong-do. The Yeojidoseo, a Joseon-period gazetteer, records some fifty buildings, including Seonhwadang Hall, together with their number of bays, but today only Seonhwadang Hall, Pojeongsa, the triple gate, and a single auxiliary building remain. The present Seonhwadang Hall was built in 1833, the thirty-third year of King Sunjo; it originally stood on the site of the high school attached to Gongju National University of Education, and was moved to its present location in 1932. It measures eight bays across the front and four bays on the side, having been reduced in size, from an original nine bays by five, when it was relocated. It has an ornate hipped-and-gabled roof whose side profile forms the shape of the character 八. Inside, the bays are not partitioned but left open as a single continuous space, and the columns are arranged in two rows. The centre has a coffered ceiling in the shape of the character 井, while the surrounding side bays have an open ceiling that leaves the rafters exposed. At the centre of the front hangs a plaque reading "Seonhwadang" (宣化堂), meaning a hall that displays and spreads abroad the king's virtue and instructs the people. As a late Joseon government building retaining techniques of the mid-Joseon period, it presents a grand and imposing appearance.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산