Yeongju Hyanggyo

About this place

This is a local Confucian school (hyanggyo) founded in 1368 to enshrine and honor the memorial tablets of past sages and to provide education and moral edification for the local people. It was later repaired by successive magistrates. In 1597, a Ming Chinese general, passing through Yeongju leading his troops, paid his respects to the former sages and greatly praised the topography around the school; however, he considered it a flaw that the mountain ridge on the right was low and that there was a footpath used by people and horses, so afterward the footpath was blocked and the low mountain was built up with earth. After Korea's liberation, Yeongju Girls' Middle School was established within the school's precincts, and part of the hyanggyo buildings was used by the school. At present, a class on loyalty and filial piety is run within the hyanggyo for middle and high school students. Among the surviving buildings are the 6-kan Daeseongjeon (main shrine hall), the 6-kan Myeongnyundang (lecture hall), the 10-kan-each Dongmu and Seomu, the 10-kan-each Dongjae and Seojae, as well as Jonhyeondang, Hoengnu, Jeonsacheong, Jeongokcheong, and others. In the Daeseongjeon, designated a Cultural Heritage Material of Gyeongsangbuk-do, are enshrined the tablets of the five sages, while in the Dongmu and Seomu are enshrined the tablets of two sages of the Song dynasty and eighteen sages of Korea.