Ugasanyupo Beacon Station

Bongsu were fire-and-smoke beacon stations, a system of military communication used in the era before modern communications. Built on hilltops with a clear view, they were designed to relay the safety of the borders and coast to the central government using bonfires at night and smoke by day. The beacon system was established in 1149, the third year of King Uijong of Goryeo, when the number of fires to be lit was set across four grades and provisions were made for the livelihood of the beacon guards. The system was reorganised under King Sejong of Joseon: regulations for lighting five grades of fires were established, coastal beacon mounds (yeondae) were built in every province, and beacon routes were fixed, giving the system a new shape. At each station a squad leader (ojang) and beacon guards took turns on duty, lighting one fire in normal times, two when an enemy appeared, three when the enemy approached the border, four when the enemy crossed the border, and five when engaged in battle with the enemy. In 1894, the 31st year of Emperor Gojong, the spread of telegraph communication led to the decision to abolish the system, and the following year all beacon stations and guards nationwide were disbanded, bringing the entire system to an end. Beacon stations were classified by function into central stations (gyeongbongsu), inland stations (naejibongsu) and coastal/border stations (yeonbyeonbongsu). The central station, where beacons from across the country converged, stood on Mongmyeoksan Mountain in Seoul and was known as the Mongmyeoksan or Namsan Mountain Beacon Station. Coastal stations, set up along the first line of the sea-and-land border, were called yeondae; inland stations, which relayed signals between the coastal stations and the central station, were the most numerous. Ugasanyupo Beacon Station, on the summit of Ugasan Mountain, was one such coastal station: it received signals from Nammokcheon (present-day Jujeon) and relayed them to Haseoji in Gyeongju. It lay 5.17 km from the Nammok (Jujeon) Beacon Station to the south and 10.85 km from the Haseoji Beacon Station to the north. In the early Joseon period, Yupo Beacon Station was also known as the Yudeungpo beacon. The defensive wall enclosing the beacon mound, about 216 m long, is a roughly square stone-built rampart whose remaining height is between 1 and 2 m. A 2003 surface survey found that the beacon site was set toward the east of the walled enclosure, leaving broad open space to the west and south. A large quantity of roof-tile fragments and some porcelain fragments were recovered there, suggesting that residential buildings and storehouses for the beacon guards who operated the station once stood in this area. The round, natural-stone hearth, together with the surrounding defensive wall and the remains of the guards' barracks, survive in good condition, making the site important material for research on Korea's coastal beacon stations.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Buk-gu, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물