Hwangnyongsa Temple Site

The former site of Silla's largest temple, said to have been eight times the size of Bulguksa — this is Hwangnyongsa Temple Site.

Construction began in 553 CE under King Jinheung, with the main halls completed by 566, and by 645 CE — under Queen Seondeok — a nine-story wooden pagoda roughly 80 meters tall, built in three years by the Baekje craftsman Abiji, was finished, making the temple a symbol of Silla's state-protection Buddhism. As a national temple, it was visited frequently by successive kings and remained deeply revered even after Silla's fall, receiving timber support for pagoda repairs under the Goryeo dynasty.

But in 1238, the Mongol invasion burned every building, including the pagoda, to the ground, and for centuries only the bare site remained. Excavations spanning eight years from 1976 revealed a unique temple layout — one pagoda flanked by three main halls — and yielded roughly 40,000 artifacts.

Because the upper structure was never precisely documented, a full reconstruction was never attempted; only the foundation, marked by 64 stone bases, has been restored. Where the nine-story pagoda once stood, the central cornerstone that supported its main pillar remains in place, giving a sense of the scale of the vast temple that once filled these grounds.

Honestly, though, what you actually see is a wide, empty field and stone bases — if you're expecting the ornate buildings of Bulguksa, it can feel rather plain.

Stopping at the Hwangnyongsa History and Culture Center next to the site, which has a 1:10 scale model of the nine-story pagoda and a 3D video, deepens the experience considerably. Open at all times and free.