Hwasun Oseongsanseong Fortress

Oseongsanseong is a hilltop-enclosure fortress (teomoesik sanseong, a fortress built encircling a single hilltop) located around 290.4 m-high Oseongsan Mountain, on the boundary between Hwasun-eup and Dong-myeon, constructed to make maximum use of the mountain's natural terrain. The total length of the fortress wall is about 675 m. The walls mostly used stone taken from the surrounding area, following the line of ridges or cliffs. Large stones were used for the foundation courses of the walls, with progressively smaller stones used higher up. The east wall was built by the single-faced construction method (pyeonchukbeop), in which the mountain slope was cut back and processed natural stone was then built up on one face only. The south wall was built using the ridge slope in front of the building site, part of it made by cutting the slope and piling stone on both sides. The west wall was built with processed natural stone after cutting back a steep ridge, and the north wall made use of a steep ridge and cliff. The building site is semicircular in plan, with a long stone retaining wall built in front of it, and the well lies beneath this retaining wall. Scattered around the fortress walls and the building site are fragments of grey-white hard roof tiles bearing fish-bone (eogolmun) or comb-tooth (sujipmun) patterns, base fragments of grey-white to blue-grey hard earthenware, and rim fragments of white porcelain. There are no documentary records concerning the specific period or circumstances of its construction, making its precise character difficult to establish, but given its position at a strategic point close to Hwasun-eup, it is thought to be a typical rear-support mountain fortress that could be occupied at once for defence or counterattack in times of emergency. As such, Oseongsanseong is of considerable historical and academic value.

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Where it is

Region

Hwasun, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물