Seosaengpomanho Garrison Fort

In the early Joseon period, Ulsan had three naval garrison fortresses (sugun jinseong): Seosaengpo Manhojinseong, Yeompojinseong and Gaeunpojinseong. A jinseong is a fortress of military character built at a strategically important point for national defence, such as a border or coastal area. Regarding Seosaengpo Manhojinseong, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and the Sejong Sillok Jiriji (the geographical appendix to the Annals of King Sejong) record that 'it protects Ulsan Eupseong from outside; the manho [garrison commander] held the third court rank, and twenty warships and 767 soldiers were permanently stationed at the fortress.' On the basis of these documentary records, the fortress is presumed to have been built in the early Joseon period. It fell to Japanese forces in 1592, at the outbreak of the Imjin War, and was abandoned; after the later Jeongyu War the garrison was moved to Seosaengpo Waeseong, a Japanese-style fortress, and the site continued to serve as the naval headquarters of the Dongcheomjeolchesa (deputy naval commander) until 1895. Seosaengpo Manhojinseong lies at a location advantageous for naval operations, with the Hoeya River flowing east to meet the sea just to the north. The fortress sits at the foot of a hill and was built as a pogok-sik (valley-enclosing) fortress, connecting the hill slope with the flat ground below. About 440 m of the wall survives; because the section on the flat ground has been lost, its exact plan is unknown, but it is presumed to have been close to a rounded square. Today only parts of the wall's foundation stones remain here and there, apparently because Japanese forces removed stones from this fortress to build Seosaengpo Waeseong during the Imjin War. The wall was built by laying long dressed stones flat as a foundation course, with large stones forming the base course above and progressively smaller stones used higher up to even the face, the interior presumably backfilled with small broken stones. A trace of a facility thought to be a gate site remains on the west side, but since this was a naval garrison fortress, the main entrance was most likely on the north-east side, giving easy access to the Hoeya River and the sea. The wall is about 4 m wide and survives to a height of about 1–1.5 m. Excavation identified an original moat faced on both sides with stone, together with a second moat that had been rebuilt or repaired. The moat served primarily to block enemy incursion, but is also thought to have been intended to divert water flowing down the hillside away from the wall so as not to damage it. The first moat is about 3.5 m wide and the second about 3.7 m wide.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물