Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace stands in central Seoul, first built in 1395 as the primary royal palace of the newly founded Joseon dynasty, its name meaning roughly palace greatly blessed by heaven. The complex was burned during the Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s and left largely in ruins for more than two and a half centuries before being extensively rebuilt in the 1860s under the regent Heungseon Daewongun, restoring it as the seat of Joseon royal government. Much of the palace was again dismantled or built over during the Japanese colonial period in the early twentieth century, when Japanese authorities constructed the Government-General Building directly in front of its main hall; that colonial-era building was demolished in the 1990s as part of an ongoing South Korean restoration program that has continued to rebuild destroyed sections of the palace complex. Gyeongbokgung's throne hall, Geunjeongjeon, and its pavilion set on an artificial lake, Gyeonghoeru, remain among the most complete surviving examples of Joseon-era royal architecture.