Jeongnimsa Temple Site Five-Storey Pagoda, Buyeo

The five-storey stone pagoda at the Jeongnimsa Temple Site is one of only two Baekje stone pagodas to survive, and it is free to see. The pagoda is always open, every day of the year; the Jeongnimsaji Museum closes on Mondays and opens 9:00 to 18:00 from March to October and 9:00 to 17:00 from November to February. The pagoda translates the entasis of wooden columns into stone and bears an inscription by the Tang general Su Dingfang on its first storey. Parking is free and there are toilets. It sits in central Buyeo between Busosanseong and Gungnamji, and a model of the whole temple site is on display.

A National Treasure, it is one of only two Baekje stone pagodas to survive, with the Mireuksa Temple Site pagoda in Iksan, and is regarded as an early stone pagoda that translated a wooden form into stone. Five storeys stand on a narrow, low single base with corner and central pillars; each storey's body has corner pillars with entasis, narrow at top and bottom and swelling in the middle, and the thin, wide roof stones lift gently at the corners. The tourist information calls it the ancestor of Korean stone pagodas. The commentary says it was made in the transition from wood to stone, because wooden pagodas burned easily and granite was the most available material, saving time and money; Baekje began Korea's tradition as a land of stone pagodas.

Look at the proportions, wide below and narrowing above; the entasis of the pillars; and the roof stones that lift at the tips like the toes of traditional socks. The commentary praises its stability and proportion: from the second storey up, each body shrinks sharply in height and evenly in width. Its gentleness that doesn't overwhelm and dignity that isn't light are said to represent Baekje Buddhist art; the tourist information adds that it follows wooden architecture faithfully while showing refined, creative form rather than mere imitation.

Dozens of Chinese characters on all four faces of the first storey record the achievements of Su Dingfang, the Tang general who destroyed Baekje, including that about 700 people, among them King Uija, princes and ministers, were taken to China, and that Baekje's population was 6.2 million. Because of it, the pagoda was once wrongly called Pyeongjetap, a monument to the conquest of Baekje; the Korea Tourism Organization notes the inscription was carved long after the pagoda was built. The commentary reads it as a conqueror's arrogance, adds an unofficial story that Su was killed by Kim Yu-sin before he could return to Tang, and notes the pagoda has stood for more than 1,400 years carrying that painful history.

It was the state's central temple at the heart of the capital. Who built it and when is not recorded, and the name Jeongnimsa is a Goryeo-era name confirmed by excavated roof tiles bearing it. When King Seong moved the capital from Ungjin to Sabi with careful planning, he made Buddhism the ideology of the state and laid out the temple at the centre from the start. The commentary goes on to Baekje Buddhism: it arrived in 384 under King Chimnyu through the Indian monk Marananta and flourished under King Seong, and the monk Gyeomik's return with Indian vinaya texts is recreated. It also shows how a stone pagoda was built (design, quarrying granite, preparing the ground, building upward) and how gilt-bronze Buddhas were cast with wax moulds.

• The pagoda is always open, but the museum closes on Mondays.
• The museum closes at 17:00 from November to February and 18:00 from March to October.
• Look closely at all four faces of the first storey for the inscription.
• Plan your order if combining it with Gungnamji and Busosanseong.

Fees, hours and programmes can change, so check the latest information before you visit.