Gyeonggijeon Shrine

Jeonju was the ancestral seat of the Yi family who founded the Joseon dynasty, and Gyeonggijeon was built in 1410 to house a portrait of Yi Seong-gye, the founding king - one of several such halls around the country, and the one whose portrait survives. That painting, a National Treasure, shows him seated in blue robes, and it is the only royal portrait of him left; it was moved and hidden repeatedly during invasions, which is the reason it exists at all. The compound has the shrine hall on axis behind gates, a small museum displaying the portrait and the palanquins used to carry it, and a walled garden of bamboo and old trees that is quieter than anything else in the hanok village outside the gate. Also here is a reconstructed archive building of the type that held the dynastic annals. It is ticketed, central, and the natural first stop in Jeonju.

What you actually see

• The shrine hall - on axis behind its gates.
• The founder's portrait - in the museum, with the palanquins.
• The bamboo garden - the walled quiet inside the compound.
• The archive building - the reconstructed annals repository.

When to go

April to June and September to November. The hanok village outside is busy at weekends; the compound absorbs it better than the streets do. Mornings are best.

Honest expectations

What hangs in the shrine hall is a copy - the original portrait is displayed in the museum building. Ticketed. The surrounding village is heavily commercialised.

Nearby

Pungnammun gate and the Jeondong Catholic church are a few minutes away.