S-Oil Corp. said Thursday that it will donate 10 billion won for the restoration of Ulsan’s Taehwa Pavilion, a cultural and historical landmark in Korea’s seventh largest metropolitan city.

S-Oil CEO Nasser Al-Mahasher made the announcement at the opening ceremony of the project, which took place on Thursday on the banks of the Taehwa River in Ulsan.

The donation will cover the entire cost of restoring Taehwa Pavilion, a historical structure built during the reign of Queen Seon-deok during the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.-935 A.D.). It is one of the three representative pavilions in the Yeongnam area.

Officials said they hope to finish the restoration work by March 2014.

Meanwhile, the South Korean oil conglomerate has a refinery in Ulsan. As the first corporation to set up a welfare foundation in the area, it has donated about 4 billion won to several welfare projects in the region since 2007.

By Renee Park  (renee@heraldcorp.com)