Daeonsil, Great Greenhouse of Changgyeonggung Palace (창경궁 대온실)

The Great Greenhouse of Changgyeonggung began as a design drawn up in 1907 by Fukuba Hayato, a Japanese horticulturist who had run Japan's imperial botanical garden; a French company carried out the construction, completed in 1909. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the building belonged to the programme launched after Japan confined Emperor Sunjong to neighbouring Changdeokgung Palace: presented as an amusement for the sovereign, the zoo, botanical garden and museum laid out inside Changgyeonggung also served to diminish the palace's standing, and the site became known as Changgyeongwon, the Changgyeong 'park'. The Cultural Heritage Administration notes that it was then the largest greenhouse of its kind in Asia.

The building was altered several times during the twentieth century. In 1961 the roof frames were reduced from five panes to three and coal-fired heating gave way to oil heaters; in the 1980s the brick floor was covered with cement. In 1983 the zoo and botanical garden left the palace for Seoul Grand Park, but the greenhouse stayed where it was.

Entered on the register of cultural heritage as No. 83 on 6 February 2004, it underwent a full inspection in 2013 that led to fifteen months of work, from August 2016 to November 2017. While the floor tiles were being lifted, workers found original tiles made by the British firm Minton Hollins, which were reproduced using the manufacturer's 1905 catalogue. The greenhouse reopened on 10 November 2017.

The building combines a cast-iron and timber frame with a glass skin, set on a granite base. Its structure rests on trusses and cast-iron columns supporting a single, continuous greenhouse. The front measures 33 metres and the depth 14.65 metres; the greenhouse rises to 10.5 metres and covers 582.3 m². The Cultural Heritage Administration describes it as the first Western-style greenhouse ever built in Korea.

The roof is made of rows of glass panels: each frame originally held five panes, reduced to three during the 1961 works. The floor was laid with ceramic tiles from the English firm Minton Hollins, and surviving originals were recovered and reproduced during the 2016–2017 restoration. In front of the greenhouse lies a French-style garden measuring 14 by 45 metres, with a fountain.

The restored greenhouse displays around 70 plant species. The Cultural Heritage Administration planted 'successor trees' there, specimens propagated from trees protected as natural monuments: the juniper of Changdeokgung Palace (Natural Monument No. 194), the fatsia of Bijin Island in Tongyeong (No. 63) and the Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) of Junggye-ri in Buan (No. 124). Carnivorous plants and a selection of ferns complete the display.

The building's botanical role goes back to its origins, when it was part of the botanical garden created inside the palace walls. That garden and the zoo were moved to Seoul Grand Park in 1983; the greenhouse, which stayed behind, still keeps the memory of that period.

The greenhouse stands in the northern part of Changgyeonggung Palace, beyond the pond laid out in 1909, and is part of the palace visitor route. Half an hour is enough to walk round it and through the French-style garden with its fountain in front.

A visit naturally continues through the halls of Changgyeonggung and into neighbouring Changdeokgung Palace, where Emperor Sunjong had been confined. To follow the story of the botanical garden that once surrounded the greenhouse, Seoul Grand Park, which took in the palace zoo and collections in 1983, makes a fitting complement.