Hwangnyongsa Temple Site

Hwangnyongsa was the state temple of Silla, begun in 553 and built over nearly a century, and by any measure the largest religious complex the kingdom raised - a main hall with a bronze Buddha of enormous size, and a nine-storey wooden pagoda finished in 645 whose height is calculated from the foundations at around eighty metres, which would have made it among the tallest wooden structures anywhere at the time. It burned in the Mongol invasion of 1238 and was never rebuilt. What is left is a level field of stone bases: the pagoda's foundation with its central pillar stone, the hall platform with the sockets for the great Buddha's pedestal, gate and corridor lines marked in the grass. It is deliberately not reconstructed. The Hwangnyongsa History Museum next to the field shows a large-scale model of the pagoda and the excavation record, and going there first is what makes the empty ground legible.

History

King Jinheung began Hwangnyongsa in 553, meaning the site for a new palace until a dragon was seen there, and the temple was finished in 644, a place where monks prayed for the protection of the state and a showpiece for foreign envoys. Its nine-storey wooden pagoda, built by the Baekje architect Abiji with two hundred artisans and held together without iron nails, stood some 68 or 80 metres high, among the tallest structures in East Asia, until the Mongol invasions burned it in 1238. Excavations from the 1970s onward uncovered the layout of the temple and some 40,000 objects (Wikipedia, Hwangnyongsa).

What's there

• The pagoda foundation - the base of the eighty-metre tower.
• The Buddha pedestal stones - sockets in the main hall platform.
• The site outlines - gates and corridors marked in grass.
• The museum model - the pagoda reconstructed at scale indoors.

When to go

April to June and September to November. The field is open with no shade. Evening light is best and the site is rarely busy.

What to expect

There is nothing standing - this is an empty lawn with stone bases, and without the museum it means very little. Both are free. Some visitors find it the most affecting site in Gyeongju and others find it blank.

Nearby

Bunhwangsa is adjacent; Wolji pond and the old town are a short ride.

Key facts