Yeongcheon Sungnyeoldang

About this place

Yeongcheon Sungnyeoldang is the house where General Yi Sun-mong (1386–1449), who rendered distinguished service in the campaigns against Tsushima and the Jurchen during the reign of King Sejong of Joseon, once lived; it is a building erected in the Chinese style in 1433. It measures five kan across the front and three kan along the side, and its roof, seen from the side, is a gable (matbae) roof shaped like the Chinese character for 'person' (人), to which wing-like extensions have been added over the end bays on either side. This form is a roof style that shows the transition of a gable roof into a hip-and-gable (paljak) roof. The bracketing assembled and ornamented at the tops of the columns to support the eaves projects outward in the shape of a bird's beak. In plan, the two end bays are each one ja (about one foot) narrower than the central three kan, and the interior ceiling is an exposed-rafter (yeondeung) ceiling in which the framework is plainly visible. Although the structure of Yeongcheon Sungnyeoldang exhibits the techniques of the early Joseon period, the refined and beautiful carvings of some of its members display the techniques of the late Joseon period.