Suwon Yeonhwajang 2nd Memorial House Completed After 5 Years and 6 Months of Construction, Officially Opened on the 20th

Suwon Yeonhwajang

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Suwon Yeonhwajang Second Memorial House in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, will hold a completion ceremony on the 20th after 5 years and 6 months of construction.

Suwon City began the Yeonhwajang facility improvement construction in June 2016. The construction, carried out in two phases, completed the first phase by 2018, installing 4,235 columbarium niches. The second phase of the facility improvement project has been ongoing from 2018 until recently.

The project cost a total of 36.675 billion KRW, including 7.16 billion KRW from the national government, 446 million KRW from the provincial government, 3 billion KRW from special adjustment grants, and 26.069 billion KRW from the city budget.

The second phase was divided into two stages. The first stage, completed by June, included the expansion and remodeling of the funeral hall, expansion of the ritual rooms in the First Memorial House (columbarium), and remodeling of the underground parking lot. Suwon City notably expanded the funeral hall’s mourning rooms and improved convenience facilities for bereaved families through this construction. The 12 mourning rooms vary in size from 27㎡ to 270㎡. Each mourning room is equipped with a family lounge, private restroom, and shower room. Currently, the occupancy rate of the mourning rooms is 95%.

The mourning rooms and reception rooms are designed for standing use, and a 'mourning room without a reception room' was created for families who prefer a simple funeral. Movable walls that allow adjustment of the reception room size were also installed.

To facilitate convenient movement for visitors, the underground parking lot (7,084㎡) was connected to the funeral hall and memorial houses. The First Memorial House (columbarium) was equipped with seven indoor ritual rooms (381㎡) so families can commemorate the deceased in private spaces.

The second stage of construction included the new construction of the Second Memorial House, expansion and remodeling of the crematorium, and civil engineering and landscaping works.

The Second Memorial House (3,542㎡) is a building with one basement floor and three above-ground floors, containing 18 columbarium rooms and 4 ritual rooms that can accommodate 23,000 niches. Cultural spaces such as a funeral culture exhibition hall and cultural education rooms were also created for citizens to visit without burden.

The crematorium was remodeled to improve the incense offering rooms (8 rooms) and to add family lounges, thereby increasing spaces for bereaved families.

A Suwon City official expressed expectations that "with this facility improvement project, Yeonhwajang will develop into a cultural space that citizens can visit anytime."

Meanwhile, Suwon Yeonhwajang opened on January 15, 2001, and is the first comprehensive funeral facility in Korea equipped not only with cremation facilities (crematorium) but also a funeral hall and memorial spaces (columbarium).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.