Honghwamun, Main entrance gate in Jongno District, South Korea

Honghwamun is the east-facing main gate of Changgyeonggung Palace, built as a two-storey structure with a hipped-and-gabled roof. Its front has three bays and its side two, with bracket clusters both on and between the columns. The lower level has paired doors between columns, while the upper level has a wooden floor and small board doors on the front and back walls. A stair at the northwest corner leads to the upper storey.

Honghwamun was built in 1483, the 14th year of King Seongjong, as the main gate of Changgyeonggung Palace on the old Suganggung site; its name was chosen by Seo Geojung from a passage in the Shujing. Destroyed in the 1592 Imjin War, it was rebuilt in 1616 under Gwanghaegun, and its bracket style links it to Myeongjeongjeon and Myeongjeongmun. It survived the Japanese colonial conversion of the palace into Changgyeongwon and remained the main gate.

The name Honghwa, meaning "expanding harmony," was chosen by Seo Geojung, then left vice minister of personnel, from a passage in the Book of Documents. The gate was often used for royal funeral rites: records from 1530, 1659 and 1720 note that the return processions of Queen Jeonghyeon, King Hyojong and King Sukjong passed through it.

Honghwamun faces east, so enter from the direction of Seoul National University Hospital, where Gyeongmogung once stood. Inside, the king's path (eodo) runs 82.97 m to Myeongjeongjeon, crossing the Oksucheon bridge; the stone-paved royal way is about 4.5 m wide. A stair at the northwest corner leads to the upper floor, whose panel doors open on all four sides.

Unlike other Joseon palace gates, Honghwamun's corridor wings include two cross-shaped pavilions, the South and North Sipjagak, each supported by nine pillars: one central and eight flat pillars. A staircase at the northwest corner leads to the upper floor, where panel doors on all four walls let visitors look out in every direction.