Discover verified fortresses — descriptions, map and practical info.
Fortresses
강진군
In the middle of the fields of Byeongyeong-myeon, Gangjin, a 1,060 m ring of stone walls encloses the Jeolla Byeongyeong Fortress. From 1417 to 1895, roughly 500 years, it was the army headquarters commanding the 53 counties and 6 garrison…
Fortresses
강화군
Deokjinjin stands on Ganghwa Island's east coast, overlooking the Ganghwa Strait, the narrow channel between Gimpo and Ganghwa. It was the most important of the forts guarding the island in the late Joseon period, and during the American e…
Fortresses
경주시
Walk south from Cheomseongdae Observatory and a long, wooded ridge blocks the way. It looks like an ordinary hill, but this is Wolseong, where Silla's kings lived for close to a thousand years. The palace buildings are gone, yet the earthe…
Fortresses
고양시
On Deogyangsan, a hill rising where the Han River makes a wide bend at the western edge of Seoul, stands Haengjusanseong. In 1593, during the Japanese invasions of Korea, Joseon troops under General Gwon Yul defeated a much larger Japanese…
Fortresses
고창군
Gochangeupseong is the walled town that guarded Gochang county in the Joseon era, and its rough stone walls survive almost intact for 1,684 m. You can walk the entire circuit on top of the wall, and inside are rebuilt government buildings…
Fortresses
공주시
Gongsanseong is the mountain fortress that guarded the royal capital of Baekje while it was based at Ungjin, today's Gongju, from 475 to 538. Its walls run for about 2.66 km along a ridge about 110 m high south of the Geumgang River, and f…
Fortresses
서울특별시
A short walk along Toegye-ro from Dongdaemun History & Culture Park brings you to a small gate with a single-storey pavilion standing beside the busy road. Gwanghuimun is the southeastern gate of the Seoul City Wall that enclosed Hanyang,…
Fortresses
김해시
A stone wall roughly 900 m long rings the top of Bunseongsan, the hill on the eastern edge of Gimhae. From the ramparts you look over the city, the Gimhae Plain and the lower Nakdonggang River, and on clear days as far as the sea to the so…
Fortresses
광주시
Namhansanseong is a mountain fortress on Namhansan in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, southeast of Seoul, built as a fortified town where the king could govern in wartime as an emergency capital. Its walls run for 12.4 km, and inside there is…
Fortresses
당진시
Myeoncheoneupseong is an early Joseon walled town that still wraps almost the whole centre of Myeoncheon in Dangjin. It was built in 1439 to hold off Japanese pirates raiding the west coast, and today you can walk the rebuilt south gate wi…
Fortresses
부산
In April 1592, Dongnae Fortress was among the very first places hit by the Japanese army after it landed at Busan. What survives today along the Maansan ridge, Dongnaeeupseong, is the much larger walled town rebuilt in 1731. Walking the wa…
Fortresses
보령시
On a hill behind Ocheon Harbour in Boryeong stand the stone walls of what was once the naval headquarters of Joseon's Chungcheong Province. The fortress looks out over the mouth of Cheonsu Bay, so from the walls you take in the sea, the is…
Fortresses
보은군
On the slopes of Ojeongsan above the town of Boeun, Samnyeonsanseong still raises Silla stone walls that are more than 1,500 years old. Standing below them, you look up at ramparts 13 to 20 metres high and get a real sense of what a Three…
Fortresses
부산
Among the apartment blocks and markets of Beomil-dong in Busan's Dong District, one small hill has been left as woodland. Busanjinseong was a Joseon naval fortress, closely tied to the first battle of the Japanese invasion of 1592. The wal…
Fortresses
부여군
Garimseong is the only Baekje fortress for which both the year of construction and its original name survive in written records. It rings the summit of Seongheungsan, a hill of only about 260 m, so the climb is easy, yet the top looks out…
Fortresses
부여군
A low wooded hill on the south bank of the Baengmagang River watched over the last days of Sabi, the final capital of the Baekje kingdom. Busosanseong Fortress is thought to have served as a royal retreat in peacetime and as the city's las…
Fortresses
서산시
Most old Korean fortresses cling to hills or rivers, but Haemieupseong was built in an egg-shaped ring around a low rise and a wide stretch of flat ground. Step through the gate and you find open lawns dotted with government buildings and…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Between the apartment blocks of Pungnap-dong in Songpa-gu runs a long, grassy ridge. It looks like an embankment, but it is a massive rammed-earth wall built by the Baekje kingdom on the bank of the Han River. As excavations have continued…
Fortresses
속초시
Gwongeumseong is a rocky summit in Outer Seorak that you reach in about five minutes by cable car from Seoraksan's Sogongwon area. It is the site of a Goryeo-era mountain fortress, but these days it is known less for its walls than for its…
Fortresses
수원시
Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon was built by King Jeongjo of Joseon between 1794 and 1796, and its walls still wrap around the old centre of the city for 5.74 km. Gates, watchtowers and artillery posts follow one another along the ramparts, so…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Sukjeongmun is the north gate of Hanyangdoseong, the wall that enclosed Hanyang, the Joseon capital. It is one of the four great gates together with the east, west and south gates, but it stands deep in the hills on the eastern ridge of Bu…
Fortresses
순천시
From the top of the wall you look down on hundreds of rounded thatched roofs huddled in a plain below the hills. Naganeupseong was the seat of Nagan County in the Joseon period, and it is one of very few places where the walls, the governm…
Fortresses
순천시
About 10 km southeast of central Suncheon, on a low hill above Gwangyang Bay, stands a stone wall of an unfamiliar shape. This is a waeseong, a castle built by Japanese troops in 1597 during the second invasion of Korea, and the final act…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Sungnyemun was the main southern gate in the wall around Hanyang, the capital of Joseon, and is commonly called Namdaemun, "Great South Gate". Standing among the office towers between Seoul Station and City Hall, it shows how the old walle…