The name Gyeongjeon literally means "the auspicious ground where a dynasty arose." Because Jeonju was the ancestral home of Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon dynasty, a shrine was first built here in 1410 — the tenth year of King Taejong's reign — under the name "Eoyongjeon," to enshrine Yi Seong-gye's royal portrait. The surviving portrait, designated National Treasure No. 317, shows him as a full-length figure in a blue royal robe, a deliberate choice: blue marked him as the founder of a new dynasty, distinct from the red robes worn in portraits of the kings who came after him.
The Royal Portrait Museum on the grounds is the only museum in Korea dedicated specifically to royal portraiture. Alongside the authentic Taejo portrait, it displays reproductions of portraits of several other kings, including Sejong, Yeongjo, Jeongjo, Cheoljong, Gojong, and Sunjong. What's easy to miss is that Gyeongjeon was never just a shrine housing a single painting — it functioned as a regional outpost the Joseon royal family relied on to symbolically safeguard its own origins. During the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, people risked their lives moving the court records and this royal portrait to Naejangsan Mountain in Jeongeup to keep them out of enemy hands. Today the shrine is best known as the visual and photographic centerpiece of the Hanok Village, but layered underneath that postcard image is the history of people who once put their lives on the line to protect the literal face of the nation.