Sangdangsanseong Fortress, Cheongju

The name is Baekje's: Sangdang was the county here before Silla took it. The wall is Joseon's: a stone rampart of 4.2 kilometres around the summit basin of the mountain east of Cheongju, given its present form in 1716 under King Sukjong, who rebuilt fortresses across the country in the years after the Manchu wars. Its shape is unusual. Instead of a ring on a ridge it encloses a bowl of high ground with a spring-fed pond at the bottom, so that a garrison could hold out with water inside. Three gates lead in: the south gate, Gongnammun, is the restored showpiece with its arched passage and a wooden gatehouse. For Cheongju the fortress is less a monument than a Sunday. The bowl inside is grass and a hamlet of restaurants serving pajeon, tofu and rice wine, and the wall-top path round the whole circuit takes about ninety minutes, mostly gentle, with the city spread out to the west.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적