Hwaseong Fortress

Hwaseong Fortress encloses the centre of Suwon, about 30 km south of Seoul. King Jeongjo of Joseon built it from 1794 to 1796 after moving to Suwon the tomb of his father, Crown Prince Sado, who had been put to death by being locked in a rice chest on the orders of King Yeongjo. Jeongjo saw Suwon as a new base from which to carry out reforms away from the factional strife of the court.

It was designed by Jeong Yak-yong, a scholar of the School of Practical Learning, who combined Korean and Chinese fortress design with the science of the day, building in brick and using pulleys and cranes to speed the work. The walls run 5.74 km around 130 ha, with four main gates at the cardinal points; Paldalmun in the south and Janganmun in the north carry two-storey wooden pavilions.

In 1801 a ten-volume record of the works, the Hwaseong seongyeok uigwe, was published, covering everything from the plans to the workers' wages. During the Korean War Janganmun and Changnyongmun were completely destroyed and sections of wall demolished, and the restoration that followed relied on the uigwe. The fortress was inscribed in 1997.