The Wide Courtyard Before Geunjeongjeon

From Exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station — two gates before the courtyard

From Exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3) to the map POI for Heungnyemun (the routing endpoint), 192 m, about 3 minutes (TMAP pedestrian routing). The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center gives 2 minutes on foot from Exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station and 6 minutes from Exit 1 of Anguk Station. Address: 161 Sajik-ro, Jongno-gu.

Out of Exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3, the palace is right beside you. By the map route it is 192 metres, three minutes, to Heungnyemun; the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center says two minutes on foot. Maya does not go round to Gwanghwamun; she enters the Heungnyemun forecourt through the side entrance on the Exit 5 side. She buys a ticket at the booths by the forecourt. Regular admission is 3,000 won for adults. Find on the map

The first gate is Heungnyemun. Through it is a wide forecourt, and at its far end another gate: Geunjeongmun. Maya counts. “One gate, one courtyard, one gate, then Geunjeongjeon.” On screen there was no such order; the screen started at Geunjeongjeon. Here the hall is at the end of the second courtyard.

Standing in front of Geunjeongmun you can see the building through the gateway. Still far. Maya pauses under the gate. Past it the courtyard opens out, and that width is the first thing the screen never had.

Between the rank stones — where the officials stood

Geunjeongjeon, a National Treasure, is the main hall of Gyeongbokgung, the principal palace of the Joseon dynasty, where officials paid New Year respects to the king, state ceremonies were held and foreign envoys were received. First built in 1395, it saw the enthronement of several early Joseon kings including Jeongjong and Sejong. The name, chosen by Jeong Do-jeon, means that the affairs of the realm are governed well through diligence. The present hall, rebuilt in 1867 after the original burned in the Japanese invasion of 1592, is a two-storey building five bays wide and five deep with a hip-and-gable roof and multi-bracket eaves. Animal figures including the twelve zodiac animals are carved at the corners of the stone terrace and on the stair railings; rank stones line the path from the hall to Geunjeongmun Gate; rings for awnings remain in the courtyard; and corridors enclose the hall (Korea Heritage Service portal).

Through Geunjeongmun is the courtyard. The heritage portal describes it like this: along the path from Geunjeongjeon to Geunjeongmun, rank stones marking the positions of civil and military officials stand in order on either side; rings once used to hold awnings against the sun remain in the courtyard; and corridors run from around Geunjeongmun to enclose the hall. What Maya sees is that sentence made solid. Stone posts stand in two lines, and between them a stone path runs to the hall. Find on the map

Maya stands beside one line of rank stones. There are characters cut into the stone, but she does not read them; she looks at the positions. That they were set out in order to mark the officials’ positions is as far as the portal’s sentence goes. Maya stands toward the back of one line. From here the hall looks small. The roof that sat close behind the king’s back on screen is, from here, two tiers stacked at the far end of the courtyard.

“The screen shot from the front; I’m standing at the back.” Maya’s note. From the back of the line, a long stretch of courtyard remains between her and the hall. The distance the screen showed was the camera’s. Maya likes that difference. Of all the gaps a first-time visitor meets between screen and reality, this one is distance.

She looks down. The stones of the courtyard are uneven. Maya slows so as not to trip. Where the awning rings are, she could not find today. She writes “awning ring” in her notebook.

Below the terrace — Geunjeongjeon from the foot of the steps

Royal Palaces and Tombs Center notice (30 August 2026): because heavy peak-season visitor numbers risk damaging the stone railings and other stonework of Geunjeongjeon, access to the hall’s stone terrace (woldae) is restricted from Wednesday 2 September to Saturday 31 October 2026.

She crosses the courtyard to the foot of the hall. The building stands on a two-level stone platform, the woldae. The heritage portal notes that animal figures, including the twelve zodiac animals, are carved at the corners of the terrace and on the railing posts of its stairs. Maya looks at the animals on the railings from the bottom of the steps. Today this is as far as she goes: as the Center’s notice says, from 2 September to 31 October the terrace cannot be entered. Find on the map

Maya reads the notice again. The reason was that heavy peak-season crowds might damage the stone railings and other stonework. She looks once more at the animal figures on the railing posts. They are visible from below the steps. “Today I look from here,” she writes.

From below the terrace it becomes clear that the roof is in two tiers. Five bays across, five deep, two storeys. Seen from the side the roof is a hip-and-gable roof, and under the eaves the bracket structure is packed tight, over the columns and between them too — a multi-bracket building, the signs say. Maya writes down the name and looks at the shape. On screen the roof was always cropped. Here both tiers are in view.

She does not go inside; the limit is what can be seen from outside the doors. Maya steps back from the foot of the stairs to find the spot where the whole building fits in one view. It is about the middle of the courtyard. A spot the screen never stood on.

In the shade of the corridors — 1395, 1867 and what lay between

Gyeongbokgung, founded in 1395, was the principal palace of the Joseon dynasty and the centre of the capital, set against Baegaksan (Bugaksan) with the avenue of the six ministries running south from its main gate, Gwanghwamun. The name means that the new dynasty will enjoy great fortune and prosper. Burned in the Japanese invasion of 1592, it stood in ruins for some 270 years until it was rebuilt in 1867. Most of its buildings were demolished in 1915 on the pretext of an industrial exposition, and the Japanese Government-General building was erected on the grounds in 1926. Restoration began in earnest in the 1990s; the Government-General building was demolished in 1995–97, and Heungnyemun, Gwanghwamun and other areas have since been rebuilt (Royal Palaces and Tombs Center).

The edges of the courtyard are corridors: long roofed galleries. Maya steps into their shade and stands rather than sits. From here there is a mountain behind the hall. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center writes that Gyeongbokgung was set against Baegaksan, today’s Bugaksan, as its guardian mountain. That there is a mountain behind the building is another thing the screen never had. Find on the map

She writes down the years. Founded 1395. Burned in the Japanese invasion of 1592. Rebuilt some 270 years later, in 1867. The Geunjeongjeon standing now is that building of 1867. Then 1915, when most of the palace buildings were demolished on the pretext of an industrial exposition, and 1926, when the Japanese Government-General building was put up inside the palace. Restoration began in the 1990s, and that building was demolished between 1995 and 1997. Maya writes the years in one line and looks at the hall again.

The Geunjeongjeon of the screen was a building without time. A king, his officials, and the when decided by the screen. Standing in the courtyard, this is a building of 1867, and this is a courtyard that has been through everything in between. Maya calls it “the third thing the screen didn’t have.” Distance, order, and time.

On the way out she passes the same gates in reverse: Geunjeongmun, the forecourt, Heungnyemun. With each gate the hall gets farther, and once she is out through Heungnyemun it cannot be seen. The screen never films this scene either.

A courtyard that appears only after two gates, the distance from the back of the rank stones, a terrace you cannot climb, a mountain behind a double roof. What Maya saw today were the things the screen did not choose. The screen pressed close behind the king; the courtyard is seen from the officials’ distance.

Maya’s quiet recommendation is simple: before heading straight to the steps, stand once at the back of a line of rank stones. Check the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center notice for terrace access on the day you visit. Gyeongbokgung is closed on Tuesdays.

(※ This article includes staged images created with AI.)