Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Fortresses
예산군
Imjonseong, ringing the summit of Bongsusan in Daeheung-myeon, Yesan, became the last stronghold of the Baekje restoration movement after the kingdom fell. With a circumference of about 2.45 km it is counted as the largest of all Baekje mo…
Fortresses
오산시
A ring of walls encircles the top of Doksan, a low hill in Jigot-dong, Osan. This is Doksanseong, the fortress General Gwon Yul held with 20,000 troops during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s. Its great weakness was a lack of water, and…
Fortresses
완주군
In Soyang-myeon, Wanju, just north of Jeonju, Wibongsanseong is a mountain fortress built to protect the symbols of the Joseon dynasty in wartime. It was meant as a refuge for the portrait of King Taejo and the spirit tablets of his ancest…
Fortresses
울산
Eonyangeupseong is a rare example in Korea of a walled town built as a neat square on flat ground rather than on a hillside. It protected the old county of Eonyang, a crossroads on the routes linking Gyeongju, Ulsan, Miryang and Yangsan, a…
Fortresses
전주시
Just west of Jeonju Hanok Village, in the middle of a busy road junction, stands a two-storey gate tower. Jeonju, seat of the Jeolla provincial governor in the Joseon era, was a walled city, and Pungnammun was the south gate of those walls…
Fortresses
진주시
Walls run along a cliff above a bend in the Nam River, and at their end a large pavilion looks down over the water. Jinju Fortress (Jinjuseong) saw one of the most dramatic victories and one of the most devastating defeats of the Imjin War…
Fortresses
청주시
Look east from central Cheongju and you can see a band of wall wrapped around the top of Sangdangsan. Sangdangsanseong is a valley-enclosing mountain fortress whose stone walls follow the ridges around an entire basin, and it is the city's…
Fortresses
청주시
In the middle of open farmland beside the Mihogang River, just north of Cheongju, a low square rampart of packed earth encloses a grassy field. Its circuit of about 675 m survives almost in its original shape, and with a few pine trees on…
Fortresses
서울특별시
The Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong) encircled Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon dynasty, running for about 18.6 km along the ridges of Baegak (Bugaksan), Naksan, Namsan (Mongmyeoksan) and Inwangsan. It served as the capital's wall for 51…
Fortresses
서울특별시
On the road to Segeomjeong, a five-arched water gate and a gate with a wooden tower stand side by side over the Hongjecheon stream. Hongjimun and its wall, Tangchundaeseong, were built in the late Joseon period to close the gap between the…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Heunginjimun, widely known as Dongdaemun ("Great East Gate"), was the main eastern gate in the wall around Hanyang, the Joseon capital. It is the only one of Seoul's eight city gates with a half-moon ongseong outer wall, and the only one w…