• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.24-43
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• 2015

This study constitutes an inquiry into the decline of Government Office(官衙) facilities carried out intensively during modern era, focusing on provincial government offices of Jeollabuk-do. There have been several studies of changes in provincial government offices till now, but there have been few studies of government offices of the counties and prefectures(郡縣) during the period of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea and after the National Liberation, temporally and there have still been lacking studies on Jeollabuk-do, spatially. Thus, this study attempts to empirically prove the reasons and the time of the decline of provincial government offices in Jeollabuk-do and the characteristics in the process of decline focusing on modern era. As a result of the study, four factors: demolition, abolition, appropriation and disaster had the most decisive impacts on the decline of government office facilities. Demolition refers to the destruction of government office facilities, and abolition, to the decline and the discontinuation of the operation of the facilities. Appropriation refers to conversion to facilities to meet public functions, and disaster, damage from a typhoon or fire. These factors had already been started from the 1900s, and by the 1930s, most of the government office facilities came to lose their original looks and functions. In the meantime, there was an essential purpose in demolition, the most direct factor in the destruction of the government office facilities in terms of function: that is new construction of public facilities necessary for administration and rule. The existing government office facilities were appropriated, sometimes, but behind that, many cases of demolition of the government office facilities for the new construction of public facilities are found. The appropriation of the government office facilities is divided into educational, administrative, financial and security facilities, and generally, Gaeksa(客舍) and Dongheon(東軒) were used respectively as educational and administrative facilities while their attached facilities were used as financial and public order and security facilities in general. Especially, some government office facilities were utilized as distinctive facilities such as housing or hospital. In the process of appropriation, a lot of modification occurred inside and outside the government office facilities, due to which, the government office facilities gradually declined losing their traditional styles.