Dogyongsanseong Fortress

About this place

Dogyongsanseong, located in Geumbong-ri, Gacheon-myeon, Seongju-gun, stands atop the 955-meter summit of Dogyongsan Mountain, a spur of Sudosan Mountain, the main peak of the Sobaek mountain range. The fortress wall is 7.7 km in circumference (2.5 m high, 1.5 m wide); with abundant water sources and ample usable space inside, it is a valley-type mountain fortress built to prepare for prolonged battle. The date of its construction is not known exactly, but it is presumed to have been built about 1,500 years ago in the time of Seongsan Gaya, and it is said to have been discovered while people were taking refuge during the Japanese invasions of 1592. In the 1st year of King Sukjong of Joseon (1675), the provincial governor Jeong Jung-hwi rebuilt it, and it had seven bastion towers to the east, west, south, and north, an arched east gate, a water gate, a small south gate, and others; with eastern and western granaries, it also stored the military provisions of Seongju, Hapcheon, and Geochang. From the arsenal excavated during the Japanese colonial period, iron axes, iron spears, iron arrows, tridents, saddles, armor, and the like were unearthed. From 1997, Seongju-gun planned to restore the fortress walls, repairing part of the damaged walls and the east gate—of which only the arch had remained—restoring them to their original form; within the fortress, the sites of government offices and temple ruins are scattered here and there. Historical records of Dogyongsanseong appear in the Gyeongsanji compiled by Yi Won-jeong in 1677. According to that book, soldiers from Hapcheon and Geochang were stationed there, and inside the fortress were three valleys, a guesthouse, an arsenal, and so on—records from which the scale at the time of Jeong Jung-hwi's rebuilding can be inferred.