Construction
Stone pagoda in Seoul, South Korea
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Wongaksa Pagoda (Korean: 원각사지 십층석탑) is a 12-meter tall, ten-story marble pagoda located in Tapgol Park, Seoul, South Korea. The pagoda is considered by art historians to be one of the finest Korean pagodas., designated as a National Treasure of South Korea in 1962. In 1999, the government of Seoul decided to cap the pagoda within a glass casing to protect it from damage, while as of 2026, experts are considering whether it’s possible to remove the glass casing or if there are other options for the continued protection of the priceless structure.
It was constructed in 1467, during the early Joseon period, at the temple Wongaksa. King Sejo had founded the temple two years prior to the pagoda's construction, on the site of an older Goryeo-period temple, Heungboksa. The temple was closed and turned into a kisaeng house by king [Yeonsan-gun]] (1476–1506, r. 1494–1506) who was later to be deposed. Under his successor, King Jungjong (1488–1544, r. 1506–1544) the site was turned into government offices. The pagoda and a memorial stele commemorating the foundation of Wongaksa alone survived. Houses were later built on the original site of the temple. During the Imjin War of the 1590s, the top portion of the pagoda was pulled down and laid intact and largely undisturbed at the foot of the pagoda for several centuries until it was replaced by American military engineers in 1947.
Foreign visitors to Seoul in the late 19th century often went to admire the beautiful pagoda but it was almost inaccessible, hidden in the courtyard of a small house, and in 1897 John McLeavy Brown, the Irish financial advisor to King Gojong, was authorized by the king to turn the area into Seoul's first public park. He called it Pagoda Park, the name it had at the time of the 1919 March First Movement. Today the park is known as Tapgol Park and the pagoda stands in a protective glass case in order to protect it from the weather and any additional damage.
It is one of the few pagodas in Korea made from marble. Most pagodas in Korea are made from granite, a material abundant on the peninsula. The pedestal supporting the pagoda is three-tiered, and its shape seen from the top looks like a Chinese character, 亞. The first three storeys of the pagoda follow the shape of the base and the next seven storeys are shaped in the form of squares. Dragons, lions, lotus flowers, phoenixes, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Four Heavenly Kings are carved on each storey of the pagoda. The pagoda, while made of stone, is carved to look as if it was made from wood. The pagoda has brackets, pillars, and curved roof shapes that are more typically in wooden pagodas.
The pagoda was modelled on the beautiful Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda, which was made during the Goryeo Era. Originally erected in 1348 at Gyeongcheon-sa temple on Mt. Busosan in Gwangdeok-myeon, Gaepung-gun, Gyeonggi-do (near Gaesong, now in North Korea), it was taken to Japan in 1907, returned to Korea in 1918, and is now housed at the National Museum of Korea.
The first detailed English description of the pagoda, together with a translation of the inscription on the stele, was published in 1915 by the scholarly missionary James Scarth Gale in the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch's Transactions Vol. VI, part II:1-22 "The Pagoda of Seoul."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Wongaksa Pagoda”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.