[1] It was constructed in 1467,[citation needed] during the early Joseon period, at the temple Wongaksa [ko].

[citation needed] Foreign visitors to Seoul in the late 19th century often went to admire the beautiful pagoda but it was almost inaccessible, hidden in the courtyard of a small house, and in 1897 John McLeavy Brown, the Irish financial advisor to King Gojong, was authorized by the king to turn the area into Seoul's first public park.

The pedestal supporting the pagoda is three-tiered, and its shape seen from the top looks like a Chinese character, 亞.

Dragons, lions, lotus flowers, phoenixes, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Four Heavenly Kings carved on each storey of the pagoda.

The first detailed description of the pagoda in English, together with a translation of the inscription on the stele, was published in 1915 by the scholarly missionary James Scarth Gale in the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch's Transactions Vol.