Hwajeongcheonnae Beacon Station

Bonghwa (beacon-fire signalling) was a military communication system used in an age before communications technology had developed. Beacon stations were set up on mountain peaks with a good view, using fire at night and smoke by day to report the security of the borders and coasts to the central government. The beacon system was established in 1149, the third year of King Uijong of Goryeo, when the number of fire or smoke signals for four grades of alert was set and provisions were made for the livelihood of the beacon guards. The system was reorganised during the reign of King Sejong of Joseon, which gave it a new form through the establishment of regulations for a five-level signal system, the construction of coastal beacon platforms (yeondae) in each province, and the fixing of beacon relay routes. At each beacon station a squad leader (ojang) and beacon guards worked in rotating shifts, raising one fire signal 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 decision was made to abolish the system with the spread of telegraph communication, and the following year all beacon platforms and beacon guards nationwide were abolished, bringing the whole system to an end. Beacon stations were classified by nature into capital beacons, inland beacons and border beacons. The capital beacon was the central station where signals from every beacon station in the country converged; located on Mokmyeoksan Mountain in Seoul, it was called the Mokmyeoksan Beacon or the Namsan Beacon. Border beacons were set up on the front line of the coastal and land frontiers and were called yeondae (beacon platforms), while inland beacons, which connected the border beacons to the capital beacon, were the most numerous of the three. Located on the summit of Bonghwasan Mountain (120m above sea level), the Hwajeongcheonnae Beacon Station, known locally as the Cheonnae beacon, was the most important of the stations guarding the gateway to Ulsan Bay. It was a border beacon that received signals from Garisan Mountain and relayed them on to Nammok (present-day Jujeon Beacon Station). The corresponding stations lie 3.64km to the south-west (Gari Beacon Station) and 6.54km to the north (the Nammok, or Jujeon, Beacon Station). The surviving beacon platform is about 5m in diameter at the top and about 55m in circumference at the base, with a height of about 2m. A moat surrounds the platform on the west, south and north sides, excluding the east, and itself served as a defensive wall; a similar arrangement has also been confirmed at the nearby Seosaeng Ilgil Beacon Station.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Dong-gu, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물