Jangheung Suinsanseong Fortress

This is a mountain fortress built of stone along the ridge of Mount Suinsan (561 m above sea level), which forms the boundary between Jangheung-gun and Gangjin-gun in South Jeolla Province. The walls were built using rectangular dressed stones laid in an interlocking technique, in which each course is set slightly back from the one below; the fortress has a total length of 6 km, a height of about 5 m, and a width of 4 m, with south, north, and east gates. The eastern section of the fortress has a double wall, a technique that appears in fortresses of the Baekje period, suggesting that this fortress dates to Baekje. Records state that at the end of the Goryeo period the people of the Dogang, Tamjin, Boseong, Jangheung, and Yeongam areas took refuge here from Japanese pirate raids, and that the walls were rebuilt under King Taejong of Joseon (r. 1440–1418). Traces remain within the fortress today of a beacon mound where signal fires were once lit, Suinsa Temple, and storehouse sites. The form of a drainage outlet (sugu) that let water flow out through the middle of the wall also survives, and this is valuable as important material for the study of old mountain fortresses not only in Korea but also in Japan.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jangheung, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물