Seolbongsanseong Fortress, Icheon

Seolbongsan Mountain is the jinsan, or guardian mountain, of Icheon, and the old fortress site occupies a plateau of about 30,000 pyeong (roughly 99,000 square metres) centred on the seven- to eight-tenths point of the mountain's ridge, an area popularly known as Kalbawi ("Sword Rock"). It is a pogoksik fortress, a type built to enclose a valley, and its walls were mostly built of packed earth, though stone sections survive in places. Most of the stone sections have collapsed or been buried, but remnants of stonework 3 to 10 metres high still stand clearly in places below the summit. Throughout the area, stone facing, stone fragments and pottery sherds have been found, along with nine artificial foundation stones arranged in an orderly plan measuring 9 metres across the front and 6.30 metres on the side, marking the site of a building and showing that this was the site of an imposing Three Kingdoms-period mountain fortress. On the flat part of the western ridge below the summit, foundation stones remain in their original arrangement, suggesting the site of a command post; there are also rocks with grooves carved to hold military banners, and three piles of stones thought to have been used in stone-throwing contests. Traces also survive of the two wells essential to any mountain fortress, and of a north gate adjacent to a drainage outlet. The fortress is thought to have been built by Goguryeo forces sometime between the 63rd year of King Jangsu of Goguryeo (475), when Goguryeo attacked Baekje, took the area south of the Hangang River, and first established Namcheon-hyeon County here, and the 12th year of King Jinheung of Silla (551), when the combined forces of Silla and Baekje recovered the area. Standing on the mountain's summit commands a view of the surrounding region at a glance, and the fortress is regarded as having served as an important strategic stronghold amid the fierce contests for power that took place here from the Three Kingdoms period onward.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Icheon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Historic Site · 사적