The respected Comrade
"A valuable legacy created by our ancestors through their struggle and creative activities, historical sites and relics are an asset of the nation that should be handed down from one generation to the next."
The Pullyong Hermitage, a historical site in Mt Myohyang, is a valuable legacy from our ancestors and one of national assets to be handed down through generations.
As a subsidiary building of the Pohyon Temple in Mt Myohyang, it was originally built in 1570, rebuilt in 1700 and has been renovated on several occasions.
President
Looking round Manphok Valley, Pullyong Hermitage and other places in Mt Myohyang, Chairman
The hermitage is facing south located in a secluded place halfway up Pullyong Peak, about three kilometers southeastwards from Sangwon Hermitage. As it commands an extensive view to the east, west and south, it has been counted as one of famous scenic spots since olden times. Viewing the rising moon over the eastern mountain ridge from the hermitage is so cheerful it has been rated as one of the eight famous scenes in Mt Myohyang.
The building has five bays (10.77 meters) on the facade and three (6.15 meters) on both sides. But the facade looks like having four bays as a pillar is missing. Headrails are tightly joined to tapering columns and topped with a three-wingspace way headspace to make the building look light and spacious. Despite a wingspace-style building, hwaban and pho, decorative elements in traditional Korean-style buildings, were used between pillars in a combined way. The yellow and blue dragons carved on the headspace in the four corners are so lifelike, showcasing the excellent carving skills in those days. The roof with eaves raised with long additional common and angle rafters and the veranda across which a headrail was placed without setting up pillars look fairly spacious and light.
The Pullyong Hermitage is not only a historical site showing the high level of architecture of the Korean people but a place where the Chronicles of Feudal Joson Dynasty was kept.
Right after the outbreak of the Imjin Patriotic War in 1592, Son Hong Rok, An Ui and others moved the chronicles and other precious national classics preserved in an archive in Jonju to Haeju in the Hwanghae provincial region via Asan in the Chungchong provincial region by ship. In 1597 when the Japanese aggressors mounted an invasion again, Son Hong Rok removed the 50 horse loads of history books to Kanghwa Island. Afterwards, he thought that the island was still unsafe and took a step to move them again to the Pullyong Hermitage in Mt Myohyang via Anju by ship. As a result, the chronicles and other national classics could avoid the ravages of the war. The chronicles removed to Mt Myohyang at that time was the sole one which survived the war damage among the four copies of the chronicles after the war and which was used as the original copy in reprint.
As seen above, the Pullyong Hermitage is a valuable national asset associated with the history and patriotic spirit of the Korean nation and a high level of architecture of the Koreans.
It is now well preserved and managed in its original state under the seasoned leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.
