Ask most people about Baekje's last capital and they'll say Buyeo (ancient Sabi). Wanggung-ri Historic Site complicates that assumption. Thirty years of archaeological excavation here have uncovered a palace enclosure wall, a main hall foundation, gardens, a rear garden, and even the remains of a restroom and craft workshops. This is the core physical evidence behind the theory that King Mu, in Baekje's final decades, ran Iksan as a genuine seat of power — either as a secondary capital alongside Sabi, or in some readings, as a de facto capital in its own right.
The site also preserves a five-story stone pagoda (National Treasure No. 289), a trace of a later temple that was apparently built directly on top of the former palace grounds — meaning a sacred building was later layered onto the ruins of royal power. In 2015, this site was inscribed as part of UNESCO's "Baekje Historic Areas" World Heritage listing, alongside two sites in Gongju and four in Buyeo, with Wanggung-ri and Mireuksa representing Iksan's two entries. In effect, UNESCO itself concluded that Baekje's story can't be told through Buyeo alone. There's no dramatic reconstructed architecture to look at today — just excavated wall lines and foundation stones spread across an open field — but they quietly testify to a second capital that Baekje was still shaping right up until its final years.