Seonmongdae

About this place

Seonmongdae is a pavilion built in 1563 by Uam Yi Yeol-do, a grand-nephew of Toegye Yi Hwang. It was named 'Seonmongdae' (Pavilion of the Dream of the Immortal) because of the legend that 'one dreamed of an immortal descending from heaven to play here.' The three characters of the pavilion's name plaque are the personal handwriting of Toegye Yi Hwang. Inside the pavilion, autograph poems by the great scholars of the age—Toegye Yi Hwang, Yakpo Jeong Tak, Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong, Cheongeum Kim Sang-heon, Haneum Yi Deok-hyeong, and Hakbong Kim Seong-il (now kept at the Academy of Korean Studies)—are engraved on woodblocks and have been handed down to this day. As a traditional Confucian space of the ancestors, it is a scenic site of great historical significance. The Seonmongdae area is a venerable place with a history of about 450 years, recorded in the Yecheon-eupji (local gazetteer). It is one of the representative scenic spots of the Naeseongcheon basin, showcasing Korea's traditional beauty of mountains and waters. In terms of geomancy, its topography is of the 'pyeongsa nagan' form (wild geese alighting on a flat sandbank), and together with the white sandy beach of the Naeseongcheon it creates a beautiful landscape; the Seonmongdae forest here is a woodland of deep historical origin. A pine forest 100 to 200 years old has grown here, serving as a windbreak and as a barrier at the water's mouth.