The city of Jeonju was the political, economic and cultural center in the Honam Plain, Korea’s most fertile farmland that encompasses today’s South and North Jeolla Provinces. The first historic records about the city come from the Unified Silla Period. Back then, the city was called Wansanju. After the Unified Silla was divided, Jeonju served as the capital of the late Baekje, one of the kingdoms set up after the breakup of the Unified Silla. Coming to the Joseon period, Jeonju became even more important as the city was the birthplace of the first ancestor of Lee Sung-gae, the first king of the Joseon Dynasty. 