Manhoe Historic House is located in the village of Baraemi, whose name means “a village under the sea.” As a place where literary and intellectual endeavors have flourished since ancient times, Manhoe Historic House’s representative structure is Myeongwolu Pavilion, where ancestors studied and recited poetry amid the beautiful landscape of Sobaeksan Mountain. It is said that about 1,000 poems were composed at the pavilion in the old days.
The house is also the birthplace of the independence movement in Korea. Local Confucian scholars led by Independence activist Kim Chang-suk gathered together at the pavilion right after the March 1st Movement in 1919 and wrote the petition for Korea’s Independence, which was eventually submitted to the Paris Peace Conference. Recently, many hundreds of letters exchanged between independence activists were also discovered at the house.
The house is a square-shaped hanok structure consisting of a ‘ㄷ’-shaped anchae (women’s quarters), a ‘ㅡ’-shaped sarangchae (men’s quarters), a jungmunganchae (middle gate building), and a courtyard. The anchae, which is over 320 years old, has been inhabited by the descendants of Kim Geon-su, a civil official of the late Joseon period, for six generations, The sarangchae, which is over 200 years old, was added to the original house at a later date.
The house was mainly built with red and solid Chunyang pine wood, and is well preserved as a result. The sarangchae has a half-hipped roof, and comprises a sarangbang (main room), daecheong (main floored room), geonneonbang (a room opposite the main room), and toenmaru (a narrow wooden porch running along the outside of the building). The guestrooms of the sarangchae and jungmunganchae include the Sarangbang, Seonangsil, and Baraemisil Rooms, of which the Sarangbang and Seonangsil are equipped with an individual indoor bathroom.
In particular, the anchae is a cozy well-insulated building comprising a daecheong in the middle, a sangbang room on the left, and a gobang (storeroom) and anbang (main room) on the right.
Every room of the anchae is decorated with paintings by the owner’s daughter, fabric artworks, and antique wooden furniture. The anbang, which has an attic and indoor bathroom, can accommodate up to eight people. Guests of the sangbang and gobang need to use the external bathroom.
Right next to the house is a farm covering an area of 6,600m2 where over 100 kinds of crops are cultivated organically, including wildflowers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corns, peanuts, salad leaves and other vegetables, which are available for guests. Although the house doesn’t provide a breakfast, guests can pick vegetables in the field and cook them in the communal kitchen or at the BBQ facility in the outer yard. Meanwhile, the nearby Songyigukbapjip restaurant specializes in the delicious local dish made with pine mushrooms.
The house provides a variety of traditional experience activities including Tuho (stick throwing), Seunggyeongdo (chess), Neolttwigi (Korean jumping game similar to see-saw), Sijo composition (traditional Korean three-verse poem), a traditional musical instrument experience (six-stringed Korean zither, seven-stringed instrument, gong, etc.), and a woodblock printing experience.
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