Mangisanseong Fortress, Eumseong

Mangisanseong Fortress was built on the summit of Maisan Mountain, on the boundary between Eumseong County, Chungcheongbuk-do, and the cities of Anseong and Icheon in Gyeonggi-do. The Sinjeung dongguk yeoji seungnam records an entry for the Mangisanseong beacon station in its section on the beacon-fire stations of Chungju-mok, and the Yeojidoseo likewise records it as the Mangiseong beacon station, showing that the existence of the fortress had been known from an early date. Mangisanseong consists of an inner rampart built of earth and an outer rampart built of stone. The outer rampart is about 2,080 m long in total, and a passage of consistent width runs along its inner face for the entire circuit. The surviving, identifiable length of the inner rampart is about 250 m, with a beacon-fire station at its centre. Projecting bastions (chiseong) built out from the ramparts have been identified at five points, to the north-west, north, east, south and south-west, and traces of five gates survive, at the south-west, north-west, south-east, a west gate and an inner-rampart gate. Excavated relics include iron lamellar armour, cast-iron axe heads and pottery. The fortress is unusual in its gate structure, with two different types of gate built into a single mountain fortress. The beacon station stood on the beacon-fire route that crossed the Sobaeksan mountain range, and it was the most important station, the point where the route over Jungnyeong Pass at Danyang and the route over Joryeong Pass at Chungju, together with the route over Chupungnyeong Pass, finally converged. Mangisanseong is a fortress of great value for the study of fortress sites and beacon-fire stations: it is of high academic and historical significance for the historical layering seen in its earthen inner rampart and stone outer rampart, for the fine Goguryeo-style projecting bastions preserved in its stone-built mountain fortress, and for its unusual gate structure and the importance of its beacon station.

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Where it is

Region

Eumseong, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물