Gochang Mujang Gaeksa

About this place

Mujang Gaeksa, located in Mujang-myeon of Gochang-gun, was a place that provided lodging and meals to officials dispatched to Mujang-hyeon during the Joseon Dynasty. It was built in 1581 (the 14th year of King Seonjo's reign). The wooden tablet inscribed with the character 'gwol' hung in the main hall symbolized the king; on the first and fifteenth of each month, the magistrate and local officials paid their respects to it here. Whenever there was a national celebration, people gathered here to perform congratulatory rites. The main hall was built atop a stone base, and the carvings of tigers, clouds, and the like on its steps have a graceful charm. The roofs of the left and right buildings are lower than that of the main hall in order to lower their rank. The main hall (jeongcheong) of this gaeksa is a single-eaved gabled (maebae) building with a front of 3 kan and a side of 3 kan; apart from the fact that the lower part of the foundation stones was trimmed square and the upper part hemispherical, with round pillars set upon them, it has no other particular features. In contrast to the front garden of the building, which is preserved almost in its original form, the gaeksa building — which had some of its form altered while being used as a township office — was restored to its original form in 1990. Behind Mujang Gaeksa stands the dongheon, the government office building from which the Mujang magistrate governed the local administration, so the two can be viewed together.