Chungcheongnam-do

Bangyo village located in Bangyori, Uisan-myeon, Buyeo-gun, Chungcheonnam-do is a typical rural town with beautiful ancient stone-walled walks. It is famous for its stone-walled walks using natural stones, and was designated as 280th registered cultural asset in December, 2006. There is a guiding monument standing at around the center of the village.

There is an inscription on the monument, saying, ‘The stonewalled walk has the beauty and vibe of this old village. Therefore, we registered this village as a cultural asset to cherish and pass it on to the next generation.’ Bangyo village is a t ypical mountain village as well as a grass-roots village, first established when the Naju Jeong family came here in 1687. Its name,bangyo was from the shape of the ground that looks just like a small table with legs. It has been a long time since the establishment of the village, but it has never been visited by so many people as these days. The reason of popularity is the stone walls. When you walk into the village, you can see stone embankments on the roads and walls made by stones at each and every house. They are known to be built during Chosun Dynasty, implying quite a long history. Stone walls in this village are made by natural stones, and the walls tend to be higher than usual so as to block strong valley breeze.

▲Buyeo BANGYO Village

Since stones on the field are used, the length of the walls on the bottom is usually around 90cm while the top is 60cm, which looks stable. Height of the walls is not regular, but 1.5 to 2m is general. On the bottom, wide foundation stones are laid in two rows, and smaller stones are piled upwards. Empty spots in the middle are filled with dusts and fistsized stones.

There is also a 2-meter high walls made by round stones from fields. The stone wall is on the boundary of a field, not to mention of around a house. The stone wall around the house is high enough to almost reach eaves, and the other one around the farm is low with only 2 to 3 layers. In case where a house is located on a slope, breast wall was built to make a flat ground. In such case, the bottom of the wall on a slope was built solid like a breast wall and stone wall was piled up on it.

Bangyo village is even more famous with a summer house of former cultural heritage administrator Hongjun You, who is the author of ‘My visit to historic sites’. He bought a deserted house and made it into his summer house. He named it Hugh Hugh Dang, meaning a resting house. It is known that he has often visited Muryangsa Temple in Chungcheongnam-do since he was impressed by the beautiful harmony of the temple and nature when he was young. And finally, he decided to build his own house here in Buyeo, considering 6 factors including distance from Seoul, which is less than two hours, and a nearby museum.