Seosaeng Igil Beacon Station

Beacon stations, or bongsu, were a military communication system from an age before modern communications, using torch fires by night and smoke by day on mountain peaks with good visibility 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 fires to be lit was fixed into four grades and provisions were made for the livelihood of the beacon guards. The system was reorganised under King Sejong of Joseon, who overhauled it by establishing regulations for a five-fire signalling scale, building coastal beacon platforms (yeondae) in every province, and fixing the beacon routes. At each station a squad leader (ojang) and beacon guards worked in shifts, lighting one fire in normal times, two when the enemy appeared, three when the enemy approached the border, four when the enemy crossed the border, and five when engaged in battle. In 1894, the thirty-first year of Emperor Gojong, the spread of telegraph communication led to the decision to abolish the system, and the following year every beacon platform and its guards across the country were dismantled, ending the beacon system entirely. Beacon stations were classified by function into capital beacons (gyeongbongsu), inland beacons (naejibongsu) and coastal beacons (yeonbyeonbongsu). The capital beacon, where signals from every station in the country converged, stood on Mongmyeoksan Mountain in Seoul and was known as the Mongmyeoksan Beacon or Namsan Beacon. Coastal beacons, called yeondae, were set up on the front line of the sea and land border, while inland beacons, the most numerous type, served as intermediate stations linking the coastal beacons with the capital beacon. Located at the summit of Bongdaesan Mountain (121m above sea level) in Nasa-ri, Seosaeng-myeon, Igil Beacon Station received signals from Ai Beacon Station to the south-west and relayed them on to Hasan Beacon Station. Along this route the distance to Ai Beacon Station in the south-west is 5.8km, and to Hasan Beacon Station in the north is 4.2km. The yeondae, the station's central facility, is nearly circular, with a base circumference of about 30m; the northern part is now largely collapsed, but the southern part survives relatively well. Around the yeondae, except on the south side, there is a defensive moat about 3m wide, and some sections inside the moat show stone facing, thought to have protected the station from invaders or wild animals.

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Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물