Hanyangdoseong, the Seoul City Wall

When Taejo made Seoul his capital in 1394 he had it walled within two years, along the ridgelines of the four mountains that enclose the old city — Bugaksan to the north, Naksan east, Namsan south, Inwangsan west. Around two hundred thousand men were conscripted for two spells of forty-nine days each. The result was 18.6 kilometres of wall with four great gates and four small ones. Look closely at the stonework and it changes as you walk. The earliest sections are rough fieldstone; Sejong's rebuilding of 1422 used dressed rectangular blocks; Sukjong's repairs of 1704 used large squared stones set in neat courses. Some blocks carry carved inscriptions naming the county whose labourers built that stretch, so that a collapse could be traced to whoever was responsible. Trams, roads and the colonial city plan took much of the lowland wall down in the early twentieth century, but about two-thirds survives or has been rebuilt, and the whole circuit can be walked in a long day. The Bugaksan section behind the presidential compound was closed for security for forty years and reopened gradually from 2007.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Historic Site · 사적