Uiseong Sogyedang

About this place

Sogyedang is said to have been built by Nam Jeong-gi around the year 1800. Upon entering the main gate, beyond a broad sarang courtyard stands a straight (ㅡ)-shaped men's quarters (sarangchae) facing south, and behind it is a U (ㄷ)-shaped inner quarters (anchae), so that the whole forms an open square (ㅁ). The men's quarters at the front are centered on a middle gate in the middle of the building; to the left is the large sarang, where the grandfather, the male elder of the household, resides, and to the right is the small sarang, where a son or grandson resides. The roof shapes of the large sarang and the small sarang differ, being a hip-and-gable roof and a gable roof respectively. The higher, more ornate hip-and-gable roof indicates the place of a person of higher status. The inner quarters are centered on a two-bay daecheong (main wooden-floored hall), with the main room to the right and an upper room and a floored room to the left. The mistress of the household lives in the main room, and the grandmother, the female elder of the household, lives in the upper room. Sogyedang has the typical form of houses in which the yangban (aristocracy) of the Yeongnam region lived, making it valuable as material for studying residences of the Yeongnam region in the Joseon period.