Do you know that Unhyeongung is called as a palace but is not actually an official palace? Unhyeongung is a personal house for Heungsun Dawongun, and Gojong was raised there until he was 12. When Gojong became the king, people started to call the building Unhyeongung palace.

Heungsun Dawongun was a father of Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon. After king Cheoljong passed away he didn't have any son to continue his throne and Gojong was chosen to be the king. Since he was so young when he became a king Heungsun Dawongun ruled Josoen instead of him for few years. Gojong got old enough and in 1897, he declared the Daehanjeguk and called himself as an emperor and her wife empress Myeongseong. But actually, his wife was called as an empress after she was dead. She was unfortunately murdered by Japanese.

Anyway, back to Unhyeongung, there are four main buildings there. They are Sujiksa, Noandang, Norakdang, and Irodang. I would like to briefly introduce two of them. First, Noandang is a sarangchae in Unhyeongung. It is close to the gate because it's a man's place. Dawongun used to meet guests and do some official works there. When you walk a little deeper inside from Noandang, you can see Norakdang, which is a anchae. It was a woman's place and Gojong got married with empress Myeongseong there.

Both of these two buildings have the heating system called Ondol. It made people stay warm and comfortable inside in the cold winter. Also people hung up the doors to make the wind pass through and feel cool in the summer.

I liked Unhyeongung's buildings because it was different with other palaces' buildings. They looked more cozy and simple because they weren't decorated a lot. I prefer simple things to the too colorful things.. I guess. I think I learned a lot about an another palace besides the five palaces I've known before and it was cool to be there.