Noseong Gwollisa

About this place

Noseong Gwollisa is a portrait shrine enshrining a portrait of Confucius. The name Gwollisa derives from Gwolli Village, the village where Confucius was born and raised. In the 13th year of King Sukjong (1687), Uam Song Si-yeol sought to establish Gwollisa, but he passed away two years later and could not fulfill his wish. Afterward, in the 42nd year of King Sukjong (1716), his disciples Gwon Sang-ha, Kim Man-jun, Yi Geon-myeong, and others built Gwollisa at the foot of Noseongsan Mountain, to the west of the present location, and enshrined the portrait of Confucius the following year. In the 15th year of King Jeongjo (1791), the Five Sages of the Song dynasty were enshrined, and in the 5th year of King Sunjo (1805), the provincial governor Park Yun-su moved it to its present site. The present portrait shrine measures three bays across the front and three bays on the side, and its roof is a gable roof shaped, when viewed from the side, like the character for 'person' (人). Besides here, there were also Gwollisa in Gangneung, Jecheon, and Hwaseong, but today they remain only here and in Hwaseong.