Nagangaeksa Temple

This is a Joseon-period building where, on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month, rites were performed before a jeonpae, a tablet symbolising the king, and which also served as lodging for envoys. The Sinjeung dongguk yeoji seungnam records that it was built in 1450, the thirty-second year of King Sejong, by the county magistrate Yi In, and the Seungju Munheonjip records that it was repaired in 1631, the ninth year of King Injo, and again in 1857, the eighth year of King Cheoljong. Only the main building of the guest house survived; after 1909 it was used as a building of Nagan Elementary School, and it was repaired in 1982. It measures seven bays across the front and three bays deep in total, consisting of a central building of three bays flanked symmetrically by attached wings. The roof of the main building is a simple gabled roof with the front and rear slopes meeting directly, whereas the wings have hipped-and-gabled roofs whose roofline resembles the character "eight" (八) when seen from the side. The bracket sets built above the columns to support the eaves are carved with lotus-bud and lotus-flower motifs on the main building, but on the wings they are all cut back and simplified. The jeonpae was originally enshrined in the main building, but once it came to be used as a school, the place where it had been enshrined disappeared. Inside, the ceiling is an exposed-rafter ceiling that leaves the structural members visible, and the colours and patterns befitting a guest house are relatively well preserved; in particular, the patterns remaining at both ends of the main beam, shaped like a dragon's body, are of a kind found in old building conventions. Although the surrounding buildings that originally stood here have disappeared, this building is generally regarded as one that retains the typical style of a Joseon guest house.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suncheon, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산