Seongmisanseong Fortress

Seongmisanseong is a temoe-sik Baekje stone-walled mountain fortress, a type built encircling a single summit, standing atop 430.5m-high Seongmisan Mountain in the area of San 24, Deokcheon-ri, Gwanchon-myeon, Imsil-gun. In plan it is elongated and oval, narrow at the summit and wide further down the slope, forming ground that is high in the north and low in the south, with a circumference of about 522m. Excavation has revealed numerous gudeul remains (traces of the traditional underfloor heating system), two water-collection facilities, and sections of the fortress wall. The gudeul remains are presumed to be hearths and heating flues within pit-dwellings, but both the dwelling outlines and the gudeul are so badly damaged that only parts survive; turtle-shaped flasks, lidded bowls and jar-shaped earthenware were excavated around them. The two water-collection facilities were found on the lowest-lying terrace on the south side of the fortress, built side by side in a north–south line 1m apart. Facility No. 1, on the south side, is circular in plan; its walls step inward as they rise, giving it an inverted-trapezoid cross-section. It was built of unhewn broken stone, with the gaps between the stones packed with smaller fragments, and measures about 550cm in diameter and 270cm in depth. The excavation of a Baekje-period roof tile stamped with the inscription "Obu" and a gilt-bronze standing Buddha has shown that the fortress was built around the sixth century. Geopolitically, Gwanchon-myeon, where Seongmisanseong stands, has since antiquity lain on a crossroads of routes linking east and west, north and south. It sits on the north–south route joining Baekje's Southern Region fortress of Gujihaseong (the fortresses at Heuksong-ri and Cheokmun-ri, Namwon) to the Eastern Region fortress of Deokanseong (present-day Nonsan) in the north, and on the east–west route joining the Central Region of Gosaburi (present-day Gobu, Jeongeup) in the west to Jangsu, on the border with Silla, in the east. For this reason Professor Jeon Yeong-nae identified Seongmisanseong as Gaksanseong, built in 605, the third year of King Mu of Baekje. He held that Gaksanseong was built to guard against Silla attack after Baekje's defeat at Amaksanseong (the fortress at Seong-ri, Beonam-myeon, Jangsu-gun) that same year, and that it lies on the so-called Galryeongdo route, along which Silla retreated in 661, the eighth year of King Taejong Muyeol of Silla, after failing to capture Duryangiseong, the base of the Baekje restoration forces in Buan. In the sixth and seventh centuries, amid the confrontation between Silla and Baekje, (Baekje) Sobaeksan Mountain

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Where it is

Region

Imsil, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물