Jungmyeongjeon Hall

Down an alley behind Jeongdong Theater, just off Deoksugung's stone-wall path, stands the two-story brick building known as Jungmyeongjeon.

After a major fire at Gyeongungung (now Deoksugung Palace) in 1904, Emperor Gojong used Jungmyeongjeon as his working office. And in November 1905, it was here that the Eulsa Treaty — stripping Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty — was signed under illegal duress. It was also from Jungmyeongjeon that envoys including Yi Jun were dispatched to The Hague in 1907, to alert the international community to the treaty's injustice. In short, this was the site where the Korean Empire's fate took a decisive turn.

Originally part of the Western missionary residential district in Jeongdong, the building was absorbed into the palace grounds when Gyeongungung expanded in 1897. Used as the imperial library, it burned down in 1901 and was rebuilt into the two-story brick structure seen today. It survived another fire in 1925, later served as a social club for foreigners, and changed hands several times through a turbulent history before being designated a historic site and incorporated back into Deoksugung in 2007. Restored in 2009, it has been open to the public since 2010 as an exhibition hall titled "Jungmyeongjeon at Deoksugung: Where the Korean Empire's Fate Was Decided."

It's not a flashy attraction, but a place where quietly walking through carries real weight — the site still holds the full weight of that turning point in modern history.