Folklore Garden which covers area of 70,000㎡ is famous and unique place in Korean universities. Folklore Garden of Yeungnam University consists of 6 traditional houses located by the east to Mirror Lake and near the cherry blossom promenade (so-called lover's road) on the hill. All these houses including Gugye lecture-hall, Uiin Jungsa (pavilion of good people), magpie hole house, Ssangsong-jung (twin pine pavilion), Illu-Jung which were moved from flooded district in Ahndong, and house with facing to facing roof from Gyungju show characteristic and the beauty of our traditional houses. At the dawn in the early spring, in the late summer afternoon right after rain, in the autumn night when the color of chilly is changed to red from green, in the early winter when first snow comes down, if you take a walk along the Folklore Garden, you can savor antique-looking traditional houses and enjoy path ways between splendid wild flowers.

Gugye Lecture-hall

Menhir represents megalithic culture with dolmen. It is found all over the country and generally located at the entrance to the village. From time to time it stands lonely on the low hills, or is matched with dolmen. Menhir indicates sanctuary or is regarded as object of belief. The menhir to the right side was once buried in the rice paddy in front of the university's main gate. It is similar to 6 lined menhirs found at Daejungdong, Gyungsan. The menhir to the left side was made of the same method of that of Usanlinaewoo which was moved to South Jeolla Dolmen Garden from the district sunk in the water due to the construction of Seungju Dam, Sooncheon, South Julla. From historical period, in order to make menhir, dome-shaped stone pile was constructed then stone which resembles male sexual organ was put on the top of it. This type of menhir called stone piled menhir seems to closely relate to geomancy. Menhirs are concentrated in east Asia and west Europe. Menhir is distributed all over the world, including Near East and north Africa.

Uiin Jungsa (pavilion of good people)

When you just enter the folklore garden, you can see magnificent tile roofed house called Uiin Jungsa (pavilion of good people). Originally this house was located at Uiin Village in Yeanmyun, Ahndong that was faced to the danger of sinking in the water due to Ahndong dam construction. Thus, the house was moved to the present place. The name of this building was after the name of its original place. Uiin Village was the place where great scholar in Chosun, Toegye's second grandson, Sundo's descendants resided over the long period of time. The owner of this house at the time of removal was Mr. Dong-Yup Lee who is also descendant of Sundo. The servants and the tenant farmers who cultivated plants at the field belonged to this family lived at the small island near the stream to the west of village. This indicates the economical power of the village.

Uiin Jungsa was constructed by Dong-Yup Lee's great grandfather, Jung-Gil Lee when he held the position of public official at Jinbo. At this time Jung-Gil Lee's financial power was not enough to build this house at one time so the house was constructed little by little. The house was called Jinbo mansion as the owner was public official at Jinbo. The building was constructed at land of 1300. It consists of the main building, the houses at the frank of the main building, a detached building used for a drawing room and reserved for entertaining male guests. The main building has 39 rooms. The size of building is 180㎡. The main gate, Soseul Gate, and five rooms on both sides of the main gate where servants lived are located to the northwest of the main building. These facilities covers area of 33 ㎡. The mill building, a open shed, privy covering area of 21㎡ are located to the northeast of the main building. The privy is also constructed to the left of the main building and small gate is located to the right of it. Thus, this house consisting of 47 rooms and covering area of 240is magnificent mansion.

House alive- magpie hole house

If you go along the pathway on the right of Uiin Jungsa (Pavilion of good people), you can encounter a house with sraw-thatched roof like a picture. This type of house, a typical house of hilly country in north Gyungsang Province, is called magpie hole house. The name of house is originated from characteristic of house structure. Magpie hole house shows how our ancestors harmonized their life with nature and adapted to their environment. The hilly country where magpie hole houses are found is exposed to various types of natural disaster and danger. Specially wild animals from the mountain can attack domestic animals and humans. Because of this reason, the means of protecting both domestic animals and humans from natural danger became main element to decide the structure of magpie hole house.

Characteristic space arrangement of magpie hole house is that all spaces composing house are arranged inside the house. First, kitchen, the women's room, a room on the opposite side of the main living room, the main floored room are arranged at the same space. In addition, a cowshed is arranged at the same space of residence. As the house has only one entrance door from outside, a small sliding door behind the main floored room, and a door between kitchen and the husband's room, the entrance from outside is minimized. Thus, when these three doors were closed, residence space was completely blocked from the outside world. This is because that they wanted to protect their house and lives from wild animals' attack. When the house has this structure, it became ill-ventilated.

However, problem of ventilation of magpie hole house is scientifically solved. They applied principle of the convection of the air. The house has ventilating holes beside the ridges of the roof to remove hot air from the kitchen and the cowshed. As the shape of house with these holes looks like magpie nest, the house is called magpie hole house. The entrance door is located opposite the small door behind the main floored room. This structure also help ventilation problem of the house. When both the entrance door and the small sliding door behind the main floored room are opened, outside air rapidly comes into inside the house and leaks out. In the summer, the inside air is cooled as these two opposite doors are opened. The main floored room is very useful in the summer. Therefore, the magpie hole house is alive. The magpie hole house structured to conform and adapt to the nature is well matched with Confucianism that controlled over the people's life in Chosun. The main building of the house and a detached building used for a drawing room and reserved for entertaining male guests are strictly separated from each other. The latter of the magpie hole house consisting of main room and attached room has different structure from that of the main building of the house. The separate space use and different structure of two buildings reflect Confucianism emphasizing distinction between the sexes and ages. In short, the magpie hole house well harmonizes with natural and humanistic environment and shows our ancestors' wisdom.

Ssangsong-jung (Twin Pine Pavilion)--ancient scholar's remote utopian library

The owner of Ssangsong-jung was Geumhye, Confucian scholar during King Jungjong's reign, Chosun dynasty. In Chosun Period, Confucian scholars built Gugok (a sort of pavilion) or separate house or managed separate library as a means of achieving Utopia. Although the origin of managing separate library traces back to Three Kingdom Period, it became very popular in the middle Chosun among Yeungnam Confucian scholars.

Although Geumhye worked during King Jungjong's reign, he never held official position. He secluded at Bukjili, Bongwha and constructed Ssangsong-jung after he passed examination about Confucianism. He was famous for master of Taoism. Twin Pine Pavilion was repaired many times since it has been constructed. However, we do not know about repair work in detail because there is no record left. According to extent record, Hyanggi written by Gwangjung Lee, the pavilion began to have been repaired in King Youngjo's reign of 23 year(1747) and was finished in 2 years. Although the pavilion was repaired many times, its original structure and form is still remained and it shows architectural pattern in the early Chosun.

The building, Twin Pine Pavilion, and its surrounding landscape shows Gumhye's ability as an outstanding architect as well as a landscape architect. Architecture of this elegant pavilion, his capability of making old pine trees in front of pavilion changed to be garden plants , construction of a pond to west wall of the pavilion and constructing small artificial island in the pond which is decorated with water lily, and harmony of all these things indicate that Gumhye must have been a professional architect and landscape architect, as well. Generally, when traditional Korean buildings are matched with surrounding landscape, the beauty of buildings is outstanding. However, it is regretful that today we cannot reconstruct the surrounding landscape of the traditional buildings.

Ilhyudang

안동댐이 만들어지면서 1974년에 이곳으로 옮겨온 건물이다. 일휴당 금응협선생이 제자를 교육하기 위해 지은 별당이다.

Hwa sanseodang

경상북도 문화재자료 제220호이다. 조선 효종 2년(1651)에 만회당 장경우선생이 후진을 양성하기 위해 지었다. 2009년 경상북도 칠곡군 석적면 중리에 있던 건물을 이곳으로 이건했다.