Gyeonghoeru

Gyeongbokgung Palace
Seoul, Korea

Gyeonghoeru is the royal banquet hall, #19 on the palace map. Like most of the palace, it was destroyed during the Japanese invasion, reconstructed in the mid-19th century, and restored again in the late 20th century. The hall is pleasingly situated on a balustraded platform in the middle of a square artifical lake that measures 128m by 113m (400 x 370 ft), and is connected to the shore by three balustraded causeways. The building is an open pavilion without walls. It has two floors, connected with wooden stairs, and a hip-and-gable roof. It rests on 24 square outside pillars and 24 round inside pillars, all made of stone. The pillars were originally decorated with climbing dragons, a Chinese imperial motif that was not reproduced on the subsequent restorations.