Muwonseowon

About this place

Muwonseowon is a Confucian academy that enshrines the portraits of Ha Yeon, known by the courtesy name Gyeongjae and the posthumous title Munhyogong, together with his wife, Lady Yi of the Seongju clan. The academy was founded in 1630 (the 8th year of King Injo) by the Confucian scholars of Yeongcheon, but it was demolished in 1868 under Heungseon Daewongun's decree abolishing the academies, and was restored roughly 70 years ago. It follows the 'lecture hall in front, shrine behind' layout, with the lecture hall at the front and the shrine at the rear. The shrine is a building with a gabled roof and double eaves, measuring 3 bays across the front and 1 bay to the side. The lecture hall is a single-eaved, hip-and-gable-roofed building of plain (mindori) style, 4 bays across the front and 2 bays to the side. It has the common floor plan, with a wooden-floored hall in the central 2 bays and rooms on either side. The lecture hall and the shrine each have their own walls forming separate enclosures, and in front of the lecture hall area the east and west dormitories are laid out in a separately arranged section. An outer three-gate stands in front of the east and west dormitories. The east and west dormitories, 3 bays across the front and 1 bay to the side, have hipped roofs, with single eaves and plain (mindori) style. Of the buildings that survive today, Muwonseowon consists of five structures: the shrine Sukcheonggak, the lecture hall, the east dormitory, the west dormitory, and the gate quarters. In the case of the west dormitory, it was converted for convenience into a raised-floor (standing) structure so that a caretaker could live there. Although Muwonseowon has the full formal features of an academy, with a shrine, a lecture hall, east and west dormitories, and inner and outer three-gates, the technique of arranging the lecture hall alone as a separate spatial unit is not a common one.