Mangmijeong Usongdang

About this place

Mangmijeong, built upon the strangely shaped rocks and cliffs along the Yongjeoncheon riverside in Cheongsong as its foundation, is a Joseon-period pavilion erected in 1899 — over a hundred years ago — by Jang Seung-won, the governor of Cheongsong; its name means 'to gaze upon beauty'. Harmonizing with the cliff Hyeonbiam, it forms indescribably superb scenery, and beneath the cliff a pool 3 m deep that never dries up throughout the four seasons draws admiring exclamations from those who see it. Usongdang is a seodang (village study hall) built in 1688 by Yun Sang-yeong, the grandson of Master Yun Du-seok, to honor his forebear's intent, on a spot that had been Yun Du-seok's place of leisure and study some 300 years earlier; it is a hip-and-gable-roofed building of three kan at the front and two kan at the side, situated facing Mangmijeong.