Gyeonggi's Twelve Joseon Royal Tomb Precincts, Compared: The Five That Differ on Price or Opening Time

A royal tomb was not a single grave but one item of a system, and in Gyeonggi that fact survives as stonework that moved between the precincts.

Hyojong's Yeongneung originally stood inside what is now Donggureung, on the ground Yeongjo's own tomb occupies today. When the tomb was moved to Yeoju the old stone figures were buried, and later, when Sungneung was laid out at Donggureung, they were dug up again, recut and used. The tomb standing in Yeoju and the tomb standing in Guri are the before and after of the same stone.

Yereung's statuary at Seosamneung is not its own either. The civil and military figures, the stone horses and the lantern came from Jungjong's former Jeongneung: they were buried when that tomb moved to what is now southern Seoul, and taken up again when Yereung was built. Paju Jangneung chose to keep rather than to move — the old figures and the newly carved ones were set on one burial ground together.

The first of a form and the last of one are both inside these twelve. The plan that puts two burial hills under a single shrine begins at Gwangneung. Burying king and queen under one mound begins with Sejong's Yeongneung, and stacking their two mounds on one hillside with Hyojong's. The last Joseon royal tomb built to the Gukjo sangnye boppyeon is Yereung at Seosamneung. What comes after that is no longer a Joseon royal tomb but an imperial tomb of the Korean Empire — Hongneung and Yureung in Namyangju, where a sleeping hall stands in the shrine's place and stone qilin, elephants and camels line the approach.

None of this is visible from Seoul's five alone, because most of what they traded stone with is out here.

All twelve close on Mondays, and closing time and last admission are the same at all twelve. Only two things differ, and they differ at five different places.

Two differ on admission. Yeoju's Yeongneung and Yeongneung charges half what the others do, and Yangju's Olleung charges nothing. Olleung is free not because the fee is waived but because it is still on a trial opening — since 14 November 2019, which is the sentence the admission table carries where an amount would be.

Three differ on opening hour. Donggureung in Guri opens earliest, then Seooreung in Goyang and Jangneung in Gimpo. All three are separately designated as early-admission precincts; the other nine open at the same hour.

The two sets do not overlap. The two that differ on admission open when the rest do, and the three that open early charge what the rest charge — so there is no precinct here that is both cheap and early.

The five whose terms differ from the rest

The twelve are spread across the whole province, so a plan that takes in several only works within one city. Goyang's Seooreung and Seosamneung, Namyangju's Gwangneung, Sareung and Hongneung-Yureung, and Paju's Samneung and Jangneung are those groups.

Yeoju's Yeongneung and Yeongneung cannot be one of them. It is 62 km from Seoul City Hall in a straight line, the farthest of the twelve, and more than 20 km beyond the second farthest, Yungneung and Geolleung in Hwaseong at 40 km. It holds two firsts in the form of the royal tomb, and it needs a whole day.

The nearest is at the opposite end of that range. Seooreung in Goyang is under 9 km by the same measure — closer than Taereung and Gangneung, and closer than Heonilleung, both of which are inside Seoul. A royal tomb in Gyeonggi does not mean a royal tomb far away.