Seomgye Seowon

About this place

Seomgye Seowon is a late-Joseon Confucian academy located in Joryong-ri, Daedeok-myeon, Gimcheon-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do. It was founded to reverently honor and extol the loyal fidelity of Chungui-gong Baekchon Kim Mun-gi, who died a martyr while seeking to restore King Danjong to the throne. Seomgye-ri, now renamed Joryong-ri, is a single-clan village of the Gimnyeong Kim clan, which reveres Kim Mun-gi as its middle progenitor. The precinct is broadly divided into the lecture hall area and the shrine area, and the deeper one goes, the higher the elevation rises until it reaches the mountain. Gyeonguijae, the central building, stands on a stone-built platform and is a single-story structure with double eaves and a hip-and-gable (palijak) roof, four kan across the front and two and a half kan on the side. Its middle two kan form a daecheong (main wooden-floored hall) with inner columns, while the side bays on both ends are composed as ondol (heated) rooms. Sechungsa and Dongbyeolmyo are located to its east.