Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond

This was the secondary palace of Silla, the crown prince's residence and the court's banqueting ground, built in 674 around an artificial pond with three islands and an irregular shoreline designed so that no single viewpoint shows the whole of it. It was long called Anapji, from a later poetic name; the excavation of the 1970s recovered a wooden tablet giving the Silla name Wolji, the moon pond, and the official name changed to match. That excavation is the reason the site matters: draining the pond produced over thirty thousand objects - a fourteen-sided wooden die used for drinking games, gilt-bronze fittings, a wooden boat, roof tiles - because everything dropped in over centuries had sat in anaerobic mud. Three of the pavilions were rebuilt on their excavated foundations. The visit is essentially an evening one: the buildings are floodlit after dark and reflect, and that image is Gyeongju's most photographed.

History

King Munmu ordered the palace and its pond built in 674, at the north-east edge of the royal palace of Wolseong; the Samguk Sagi records that in his reign a new pond was made in the palace, where flowers and birds flourished. The oval pond, about 200 metres by 180, holds three small islands, and King Gyeongsun held a royal reception here in 931, when Silla was already failing. After the kingdom fell the pond was neglected for centuries, and the name Anapji appears in a Joseon survey of the 16th century, which says Munmu laid out the pond on Taoist principles (Wikipedia, Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond).

What to look for

• The pond and its islands - the irregular designed shoreline.
• The three rebuilt pavilions - on the original foundations.
• The night reflections - the floodlit buildings doubled in the water.
• The excavation finds - displayed in the small hall and the national museum.

When to go

April to June and September to November, and after sunset for the lighting - it is worth timing for. Evenings are crowded; the same ticket covers day entry.

Good to know

The pavilions are 1970s reconstruction, not survivals, and only a fraction of the complex was rebuilt. Ticketed. At night the photograph spots have queues.

Nearby

Cheomseongdae is a short walk; the Gyeongju National Museum holds the finds.