Rooftop Prince|Gyeonghuigung — The Wedding That Did Not Hold

The wedding is not filmed in a studio courtyard. It is staged on the rebuilt ground of Seoul's western palace.

Gyeonghuigung sits at 45 Saemunan-ro in Jongno-gu, free to enter and closed on Mondays. On 7 February 2012 the production brought child actors here for the Joseon wedding of Crown Prince Lee Gak and Hwa-yong. The halls that stand now are a partial restoration of a palace that once held more than a hundred buildings. Japanese occupation stripped most of them. What remains is enough stone and timber for a ceremony the plot will later break.

You walk in from Seodaemun Station and the city noise drops behind the walls. Sungjeongjeon faces you across a courtyard that used to be much larger. The cameras needed a palace that still looked like a court and was willing to let a drama company onto the paving. This one said yes.

Stand where the child couple would have bowed. The restored eaves cut a clean line against the office towers on Saemunan-ro. The marriage in the drama does not last. The courtyard does.