Gyeongcheonmyo Shrine

This description was machine-translated from the Korea Tourism Organization's Korean original.

Gyeongcheonmyo is a shrine in Jupo-ri, Gwirae-myeon, Wonju-si that houses the portrait of King Gyeongsun, the 56th king of Silla. In 927, near the end of Silla, King Gyeongsun ascended the throne, but Silla already lacked the strength to uphold the state. In 935 (the 9th year of King Gyeongsun’s reign), after discussing the kingdom’s exhausted situation with his ministers, he resolved to surrender it to Goryeo. Afterwards, King Gyeongsun wandered widely until he saw the beauty of Yonghwasan (present-day Mireuksan). He is said to have climbed to its summit, created a Maitreya Buddha statue, and founded Haksusa and Gojaam below it. When King Gyeongsun passed away, ministers and Buddhists who had followed him enshrined his portrait at Gojaam and held ancestral rites, which marked the beginning of the portrait hall. After the mid-Goryeo period the hall collapsed and the site fell into disuse, but it was rebuilt in the early Joseon period by figures such as Yi Saek and Kwon Geun. During King Sukjong’s reign, Wonju magistrate Kim Piljin painted a new portrait and built a hall to enshrine it, but it was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt during King Yeongjo’s reign, when the king renamed the portrait hall Gyeongcheonmyo. Gyeongcheonmyo was burned again later, but in September 2006 Wonju-si restored Gyeongcheonmyo at the foot of Mireuksan to honor the loyalty of the king who preserved Silla’s culture, based on the tradition that King Gyeongsun stayed here. The outer entrance gate is a pyeongsammun, and the shrine entrance is a soseul sammun; the buildings are in the late Joseon ikgong style.