Korean War (1950-1953) Sungnyemun suffered damage
from bombing. In 1962 the gateway was officially
designated as Korea’s first national treasure and an
extensive reconstruction program was carried out.
During the work that was carried out on Sungnyemun
in 1962, hidden records were discovered under a ridge
beam of the second roof. These placed the precise date
of the original construction as 1396 and went on to record
that 6,817 soldiers were conscripted to perform the
manual labor. The inventory also listed that twenty-eight
stonecutters, forty-four carpenters, sixty-three riveters,
and five sculptors, along with 1,400 laborers took part
in the gate’s construction. The record even detailed the
feast at the beam-raising ceremony: 10,700 bottles of
Arak-Ju (Korean rice-based grain liquor), 3,800 barrels of
Tak-Ju (traditional Korean wine), and 1,500 head of cattle.
© ImageClick/amanaimages
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