100 Days My Prince | Mungyeong Saejae Open Set — Palace Roofs Under Bird Pass

The pass is older than the set. The set is what the cameras needed once the pass was not enough.

Mungyeong Saejae Open Set stands at 932 Saejae-ro, just behind the first gate of the provincial park. Joryeong, Bird Pass, carried the Great Yeongnam Road between Hanyang and the southeast. In 2008 the city tore down a Goryeo backlot and rebuilt a Joseon one: a mock Gwanghwamun, palace halls, yangban houses, thatch lanes, 130 buildings on about seven hectares. Mungyeong City still lists 100 Days My Prince among the dramas that used it.

VisitKorea treats the lot as a public destination with a cheap ticket and hours that shrink in winter. You walk from the park path into a courtyard that has no residents and every architectural cue the palace scenes required. When Yul had to be Crown Prince again, this is one of the roofs that stood in for the court he had forgotten.

The mountains behind the set are the reason the lot is here. Juheulsan and Joryeongsan close the sky the way Songaksan once closed Kaesong. The production could turn a camera and keep modern Mungyeong out of the frame.

Climb toward the first gate after you finish the courtyards. The old road is still packed earth and stone. The palace behind you is plywood and tile. Both are honest about what they are, and the drama needed both.