Yeonjuam Hermitage Three-story Stone Pagoda

The Three-story Stone Pagoda of Yeonjuam Hermitage stands in front of Daeungjeon Hall. Yeonjuam Hermitage was founded in the 17th year of King Munmu of Unified Silla (677) by the monk Uisang under the name Gwanaksa Temple. After several later renovations, it came to be called Yeonjuam Hermitage once Prince Yangnyeong and Prince Hyoryeong stayed there. This 3.2-metre stone pagoda rests on a base stone formed from a single slab, its four sides each carved with six single-petal lotus flowers. Above the lotus petals, a three-tiered angular moulding supports the platform above. The platform itself is single-tiered, built from four interlocking slabs, with clear corner pillars carved on each face. Beneath the platform's coping stone, cut from a single slab, is a course of subsidiary eaves, and above it a two-tiered angular moulding and a curved cushion block support the body of the pagoda. The body of the pagoda and its roof stones (the stone that caps a pagoda or stone lantern like a roof) are each cut from a single block, with corner pillars carved on the body of every storey. Above each roof stone a two-tiered angular moulding supports the storey above, and a drip-groove runs along its underside. The mouldings beneath the roof stones number four tiers on the first storey but only three on the second and third, departing from strict regularity. The eaves are short, the ridge lines heavy, and the upward curve of the corners heavy and dull, features that reflect the style of Goryeo-period stone pagodas. Crowning the third-storey roof stone is a finial base, carved from a single stone together with its own subsidiary eaves. Well-proportioned and giving an overall sense of stability, this pagoda, on account of its single-tiered platform and its departure from the standard form of roof stone, is presumed to have been built in the late Goryeo period.

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Where it is

Region

Gwacheon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산