Historic Dondeokjeon restored to original state in Deoksu Palace

Korean Heritage

Published: 25 Sep. 2023, 19:00 Updated: 25 Sep. 2023, 19:43

Historic Dondeokjeon restored to original state in Deoksu Palace

Dondeokjeon, a French-style building inside Deoksu Palace in central Seoul has been restored to its original state and will be open to the public from Tuesday. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

Dondeokjeon, a French-style building that sat on the grounds inside Deoksu Palace in central Seoul for only about three decades, was reconstructed from the ground up by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) for over four years and will be opening to the public on Tuesday.

Though its time was short-lived, the administration said it believes it’s important to restore the original state of royal palaces. The CHA emphasized that Dondeokjeon was also significant in that it was a location at which the Korean Empire (1897-1910) actively engaged in diplomatic activities to communicate with foreign envoys that the Korean Empire is no longer a vassal or tributary state of China, but its own sovereign state. It was also where Emperor Gojong’s son, Sunjong, ascended to the throne in 1907.

A photograph of the original Dondeokjeon before it was demolished between 1921 and 1926. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

Dondeokjeon, which sits next to Deoksu Palace’s Seokjojeon, another western-style building, was built between 1902 and 1903 during Emperor Gojong’s reign. However, during the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, Deoksu Palace was turned into a public park, and the original Dondeokjeon building is believed to have been demolished between 1921 and 1926.

To celebrate the new Dondeokjeon, an opening ceremony was held on Monday, a day before the official opening. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the head of the CHA Choi Eung-chon and diplomats and ambassadors from 34 different countries including Philip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to Korea.

The reconstruction and excavation of the site began in 2017. Based on the surviving documents and photographs as well as the unearthed remains of items including tiles and bricks, the CHA said it was able to restore the building’s exterior to “close to its original.” For example, the bricks used for the new exterior were handmade, rather than produced at a factory, to more accurately depict its historical form and to display true artistry.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, second from right, and Choi Eung-chon, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration, third from right, look out from the new Dondeokjeon building on Monday during the opening ceremony of the new building. [NEWS1]

“If you look closely at the bricks, each one of them will look slightly different,” Kwoen Jeom-su, director of the CHA’s Palace Relics Headquarters Deoksugung Palace Management Office, said.

However, there was hardly any recorded information on the interior of the building, so the administration had to use its imagination to decorate the two-story building.

“What we do know is that it was strictly a French-style building with a French-style interior, unlike the British-style Seokjojeon, which was built in 1910," Park Sang-kyu, a curator at Deoksu Palace, said.

Instead of filling the inside with unconfirmed decor, the CHA decided to utilize it as a gallery. The ground floor has a Special Exhibition Hall, which remains vacant at the moment, and a Permanent Exhibition Hall, where a video, which lasts about four minutes, is set to play on repeat. It features Emperor Gojong and a large group of international guests enjoying a grand banquet. This banquet, in fact, supposedly took place some 120 years ago, when Dondeokjeon was first established.

Dondeokjeon was built just in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Emperor Gojong’s enthronement, and the emperor had planned to hold a grand international event by inviting foreign envoys. However, it had to be canceled due to an outbreak of cholera and the start of the Russo-Japanese war.

“Based on the proposals of the event, we used our imagination and created this animated video and decided to play it on a loop on the ground floor so that the building can serve its purpose, 100 years later,” Park said.

Visitors during the pre-opening on Monday look down the basement cellar through a see-through glass. [YONHAP]

During the excavation, a basement cellar was also discovered. Though there are no records of what it was used for, experts assume it was a boiler room. To allow visitors to get a glimpse of what it looks like underneath, a section of the cellar's ceiling, or the ground floor, is a see-through.

The Permanent Exhibition Hall II upstairs, according to Park, is where the main permanent exhibition, titled “Memories of the Last 100 years, Dreams for the Next 100 years,” begins. The exhibit takes visitors on a journey through the Korean Empire’s diplomacy — how it began in 1876 with the Korea-Japan Commercial Treaty of Amity, the first of Korea’s modern international treaties, followed by the United States in 1882, and lastly Denmark in 1902. It also displays photographs and documents of different historical moments, such as a photograph of Lucius Foote, an American envoy, when he first arrived in Korea in 1883 and diaries of Park Chung-yang, the first minister of Korea to the United States, written in 1888.

There are also digital portraits of Korean diplomats and foreign diplomats during the Korean Empire.

“Because this is a digital portrait, we can continue to update the photographs being displayed here,” Park said. “When ambassadors to Korea visit Dondeokjeon today, I plan to ask them to keep a good relationship with Korea and to be displayed here and remembered by many Korean citizens.”

The original version version of former National Flag of Korea from Jinkwan Temple in Seoul will be displayed only on the opening day and return to the temple. [NEWS1]

Toward the end of the exhibit is a former National Flag of Korea that the palace managed to borrow for just six days from Jinkwan Temple, a Buddhist temple in Seoul. This flag was discovered, wrapped in newspapers and leaflets, while dismantling a Buddhist shrine in Jinkwan Temple in 2009 for restoration. The flag is presumed to have been made in 1919 and used during the March 1 Independence Movement that took place the same year. The Korean flag was painted over what was originally a Japanese flag, showcasing the spirit of Koreans’ resistance against the Japanese during its occupation. It is regarded an important cultural heritage, especially for the Buddhist temple.

“It was really, really difficult to borrow the flag, and we finally got permission to hold it for just six days so that we could create a replica,” Park said. “Visitors will only be able to see the real version on Tuesday, on opening day, and then it will have to go back to the temple. From Wednesday, the replica version will be exhibited.”

The archive room on the second floor [YONHAP]

Park said the Dondeokjeon will go beyond serving as just an exhibition hall, but will also be used as a platform for diplomatic activities.

“We are in talks with the German and Italian embassies here, which will celebrate their 140th anniversaries with Korea next year, to hold different cultural events here in the new Dondeokjeon,” Park said.

Visitors will be able to access Dondoekjeon with an entrance ticket to Deoksu Palace, which costs 1,000 won ($0.8). Dondeokjeon is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., while the palace stays open until 9 p.m. During the Chuseok holidays, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, the palace will be open for free. The palace is open every day except Mondays. For more information, visit deoksugung.go.kr or call (02) 771-9951.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]