A house-raising ceremony for Gwanghwamun will be held Friday for the first time in 144 years.

The Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea said it will hold the ceremony as part of a project that began in 2006 to restore Gwanghwamun, which is the main and largest gate of the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.

A house-raising ceremony refers to an event where ridge beams of a wooden construction are erected simultaneously by a group of people working in concert.

The ceremony comes 144 years after Gwanghwamun was reconstructed, along with the rest of Gyeongbok Palace, during the reign of Emperor Gojong.

Calls to fully restore the gate have been raised as the gate was disassembled and moved to the current location at the southeast part of Gyeongbok Palace during Japanese colonial rule. The wooden structure of the gate had also sustained serious damage due to a fire that broke out during the Korean War.

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