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About Iron Pagoda Park
The pagoda has carried several names. It stands on the site of a monastery called Fengchan Temple in the Tang dynasty and renamed Kaibao Temple after it was enlarged in the early Song, when it was one of the largest religious complexes in the Northern Song capital. An earlier timber pagoda there was destroyed by lightning, and in 1049 Emperor Renzong ordered a replacement on the low rise known as Yishan. The Ming-dynasty renaming of the monastery to Youguo Temple gave the structure the name Youguosi Pagoda, while modern scholarship also uses Kaibaosi Pagoda; the popular name Iron Pagoda comes from the rust-red tone of its glazed brick.
It is a thirteen-storey pavilion-type pagoda on an octagonal plan, built of brick imitating timber construction, and it rises 55.08 metres above the present ground surface, the base and part of the first storey having been buried over time. Glazed ceramic was chosen in part because it does not conduct electricity, a response to the fire that destroyed the wooden predecessor. In 1961 it was one of seven historic buildings in Henan included in the first national list of key cultural heritage protection units.
What to look for
- The glazed facing bricks: the exterior was assembled from 28 standard component types shaped as columns, brackets, eaves and window frames, so that a brick tower reads as a timber one.
- The moulded relief bricks on the outer wall, which carry more than fifty patterns including apsaras, dragons, qilin, lions, seated buddhas, standing monks and musicians.
- The gui-shaped doorways at ground level, pointed above and square below rather than round-arched, stepped inward with five courses of cloud-pattern brick.
- The internal stair, which spirals through the thickness of the wall with no hollow chamber, tying the central masonry pillar to the outer shell.
- The open window on each storey above the second, one per floor, from which the Minglun campus of Henan University can be seen next to the park.
Location & getting there
Getting to Iron Pagoda Park
Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.
- Search for 铁塔公园 with 开封市 and 龙亭区.
Find Iron Pagoda Park
铁塔公园 · 龙亭区
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
The linked sources support the identity and background described in this introduction. Opening hours, admission, activity availability and exact arrival arrangements have not been comprehensively checked. Confirm current visitor information with the venue; the original catalogue locality and editorial review flag are retained.