Dong Yi|Chilgung Yuksanggung — The Shrine Yeongjo Built for a Water Maid

Chilgung sits on the southwest shoulder of the old Blue House grounds at 77-7 Gungjeong-dong. The compound began as one shrine. In 1725 King Yeongjo put up Sukbinmyo for his mother, Choe Suk-bin of the Haeju Choe clan — the historical woman Dong Yi is written from. In 1753 he raised the shrine’s rank and renamed it Yuksanggung.

Later kings moved other royal mothers here until there were seven tablets and the place took the name Chilgung. Korea.net’s heritage notes still walk the sequence: one woman, then a compound. The drama ends with a son on the throne. This hillside is what that ending looked like in wood and ritual.

Access is no longer a casual walk-in. From February 2026 the Korea Heritage Service put the site on timed, reserved tours — five sessions a day, thirty people each — because the presidential office returned next door. Book before you go. Closed Tuesdays with the neighbouring palaces.

The buildings are small. That is the fact the visit teaches. A king’s birth mother who was never made queen gets a shrine at the edge of power, not the centre of it. Dong Yi’s last rooms were always going to be this size.