Brick and Cornerstone Showing the Splendor of Building

Bricks and cornerstones were the construction materials used for decorating buildings. Let’s first take a look at these bricks. Unlike regular bricks, these are thinner and wider. They are shaped by putting mud into a wooden frame, then dried and baked. Different from stones, bricks can be manipulated into various forms, making them suitable for elegant building decoration or road construction.

On the other hand, please take a look at the cornerstones. This is the decoration for the part that wraps and supports a pillar. The outer shape of the cornerstone is diverse, including octagonal, nonagonal, or decagonal patterns, while the inner shape is round to insert the pillar.

It is expected that these bricks and cornerstones were used for extravagant decoration of the palace and major buildings inside the fortresses. In particular, the bricks were specially crafted by master craftsmen, showing us the advanced construction technology during the Baekje period.