Ganghwasanseong Fortress

In 1232, with the Mongol armies in Korea and nothing to stop them, the Goryeo court abandoned its capital and moved to this island, a few hundred metres off the coast, betting that a steppe army would not cross water. It did not. For thirty-nine years Korea was governed from Ganghwa, behind three rings of wall, while the mainland was burned. The court went back in 1270 only after agreeing to Mongol terms, and the walls were pulled down as part of the deal. What stands now is the inner ring, rebuilt in stone in 1677 by a Joseon court that had learned the island's value again during the Manchu invasions: 7.1 kilometres around the town, with four gates and a beacon on the hill. The Goryeo palace site is inside, on the slope above the town, marked by Joseon buildings put up on its terraces. The island's other forts, on the shore, saw the French in 1866 and the Americans in 1871, and it was here in 1876 that Korea signed its first modern treaty. Ganghwa is where the outside kept arriving, and this wall is the oldest answer to it.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Ganghwa, Incheon

Designation

Historic Site · 사적