Jeoksangsanseong Fortress, Muju

This is a representative defensive mountain fortress enclosing a basin atop a cliff-bound mountain. After the Khitan invasions of the late Goryeo period, Choe Yeong proposed that a fortress be built here and storehouses constructed, and Choe Yun-deok, a chegchalsa (senior regional military commissioner) under King Sejong of Joseon, likewise recommended that the site be preserved without fail. Given that, during the Goryeo period, people from nearby villages already took refuge here during Khitan and waegu (Japanese pirate) raids, the fortress is thought to have been built in the late Goryeo period. In 1610, the second year of King Gwanghaegun, the Jeoksangsan-sago, one of the five Joseon-period archives for historical records, was established here, and it housed the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and the royal genealogical records. Sillokjeon (the hall for the Annals), Sagak (史閣, the history hall), Seonwongak, Gungogo (the armoury), Daebyeolgwan and Hoguksa Temple were all built, and after the Imjin War a jin (鎭), a military garrison, was stationed here to maintain and operate the fortress. Today the walls have collapsed and can barely be traced amid the woods, and of Sagak and the other buildings only the sites remain. A reservoir has recently been built inside the fortress.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Muju, Jeonbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적