Namgyejeong Pavilion

About this place

Namgyejeong is a wooden pavilion built by Kim Jin, a mid-Joseon scholar, for the purpose of nurturing students. According to records, the building was newly constructed in the 13th year of King Seonjo's reign (1580) and rebuilt twice thereafter. The pavilion stands on a low platform and is a wooden structure consisting of a three-bay wide, two-bay deep main wooden hall (daecheong) and rooms. The roof is a hip-and-gable (paljakjibung) type and the bracket system is in the jusimpo style. The floor plan is divided into the wooden hall and rooms, with verandas (toe) arranged in an L-shape along the front and side of the hall. The slightly elevated main hall has an entrance at the front like an ordinary house, and on the side a pair of double swing-out storm shutters. The corner bracket (gwipo) ornamentation is splendid and the ridge is tall — though small, the pavilion exudes dignity. Inside Namgyejeong, plaques praising the scholarship and virtue of Nam-gye (Kim Jin) by the Confucian scholars of the time — including righteous army commanders Ko Gyeong-myeong and Jo Heon, and Deputy Royal Tutor Sim Eum-si — are still preserved. On a rock beneath the cliff below the pavilion, the name 남계정 is carved in Chinese characters. Namgyejeong stands atop a cliff at the end of a mountain ridge, and climbing up affords a refreshing panoramic view of Duhyeon-ri and, in the distance, Moaksan Mountain. Nearby are Gui Reservoir, Jeonbuk Provincial Museum of Art, and Moaksan Tourist Complex.