Cheonsaengsanseong Fortress

Cheonsaengsanseong Fortress, standing atop Cheonsaengsan Mountain (407 m above sea level) in Jangcheon-myeon, Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, is said to have been first built by Park Hyeokgeose, the founding king of Silla. It was the site where General Gwak Jae-u (1552–1617) fought against Japanese forces. During the Japanese invasions of Korea, when the enemy surrounded the fortress and cut off its water supply, Gwak Jae-u stood a black horse at the end of the fortress wall and stuck grains of rice to its hindquarters, pretending to wash the animal. The rice grains, catching the light, appeared to the enemy to be drops of water, and it is said that the Japanese forces gave up and withdrew. The fortress wall, more than 1 km in circumference, is built of stone linking together steep rock faces, giving it the form characteristic of Korean mountain fortresses. Within the fortress remain the sites of an armoury and a military camp, along with one well and two ponds. The present walls and gate sites were repaired by the magistrate Yi Bo in the 29th year of King Seonjo, once the fortress's importance had been recognised during the Japanese invasions, and were repaired again by the provincial governor Yi Si-bal in the 34th (1601) and 37th (1604) years of the same reign. Since the fortress retains the construction style of mountain fortresses of the Three Kingdoms period and contains tombs from that period, its original construction can be dated to the Three Kingdoms period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gumi, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물