Hwaseong Fortress

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Hwaseong Fortress
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Bifyu 8.jpg
The Hwaseong Fortress
National territory: Korea SouthSouth Korea South Korea
Type: Culture
Criteria : (ii) (iii)
Reference No .: 817
UNESCO region : Asia and Pacific
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1997  (session 21)
Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 수원 화성
Hanja : 水 原 華 城
Revised Romanization : Suwon Hwaseong
McCune-Reischauer : Suwŏn Hwasŏng

The fortress Hwaseong ( Kor .: 화성 ) in the city of Suwon ( 수원 ) in South Korea is a fortress built at the end of the 18th century on the orders of King Jeongjo ( 정조 ) (1752–1800). Partially destroyed during the Korean War, it was largely restored from the 1970s onwards. In 1997 the fortress was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a World Heritage Site .

geography

The Hwaseong Fortress is located about 2.5 km northwest of today's city center of Suwon and about 4 km north of the city's airport. With an extension of 1.8 km in the northeast and 1.2 km in the southeast, the total area of ​​the fortress is about 1.3 km 2 . The former walls of the fortress extended over a total of around 5.7 km. The Daecheon River ( 대천 ), which has its source in the mountains north of the city, flows through the area in a southerly direction.

history

In July 1789, King Jeongjo , the 22nd king of the Joseon dynasty , moved his father's grave from Yangju ( 양주 ) up to Paldalsan ( 팔달산 ) hill in what is now Suwon . Jeongjo's father was Prince Sado ( 사도 ), who was killed in August 1761 by his own father, King Yeongjo ( 영조 ), for dishonorable behavior .

By moving the grave to a very special place, Jeongjo intended to honor and rehabilitate his father. But that wasn't enough, he planned to found a new city near the tomb, build a fortress and move his residence there. As Doo Won Cho , an expert in monument preservation, noted in his dissertation in 2010, it appears that King Jeongjo had planned Hwaseong as a trading center, "which is why he actively promoted economic activities". In addition, Hwaseong was certainly also intended to demonstrate economic and military strength and to underpin the claim to social and cultural leadership in the country. Examples include a. the establishment of the royal library ( 규장각 , Gyujanggak ) and the stationing of a garrison ( 장용 엉 , Jangyongyeong ) in Hwaseong , both during the first half of his reign, which lasted from 1776 to 1800. Jeongjo must have feared possible military attacks from Seoul . The tensions within the political and influential class of the country at the time probably gave rise to this. Jeongjo tried to build a new center of power with Hwaseong and in the second month of 1797 (according to the lunar calendar ) gave the twenty richest families in Seoul the incentive to move to Hwaseong and establish their base for their trade there.

Janganmun ( 장안문 )

The philosopher and architect Jeong Yak-yong ( 정약용 ) commissioned Jeongjo on January 7, 1794, with the construction of the Hwaseong fortress, originally planned for a construction period of 10 years , but he completed the construction after only a little more than 2 1 / 2 years ago on September 10, 1796. A newly introduced remuneration system, which honored the work performance of the individual, instead of having to work compulsorily as before, made the considerable reduction in construction time possible.

After the fort was completed, the city was developed within the fort. According to the administrative divisions of cities during the Joseon Dynasty, the city of Hwaseong , which was later renamed Suwon , was divided into the four administrative districts of North, East, South and West within the fortress and divided by two intersecting streets. A good hundred years later, a cadastral plan of the fortress, first drawn up by the Japanese colonial government in 1911 , showed that the historical structure of the fortress and the city was still largely intact at that time.

Destruction

During the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), the fortress and the city either lost part of their historical buildings or were changed and their uses were rededicated. For example, the Haenggung Palace ( 행궁 ) was torn down for political reasons and the Gyeonggi-do Provincial Hospital was built in its place .

During the Korean War, the city of Suwon was fiercely contested for its strategic importance, was captured by North Korean troops on July 1, 1950 and recaptured by Allied forces in September. Large parts of the city and the fortress were destroyed in the fighting, such as the Janganmun ( 장안문 ) and Changnyongmun gates ( 창 뇽문 ) and parts of the wall.

reconstruction

Although parts of the fortress were rebuilt as early as 1964, it took another eleven years to faithfully rebuild most parts of the fortress in a larger-scale restoration project that lasted from 1975 to 1979. Further repair and restoration work took place in the 1980s and 1990s, for example the Haenggung Palace was reconstructed during this time .

The fort was added to the List of International Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2004 .

Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe

The book Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe ( 화성 성역 우이 궤 ) was created between July and September 1801 on behalf of King Jeongjo . In the book, all existing records have been compiled into a complete work. In addition to detailed construction plans for the entire fortress, the book also contains very detailed records of individual work in the various construction phases. The book also provides information about the materials used and describes the construction techniques used. Information about the costs and a detailed schedule of the project, as well as information about the people involved in the construction can be found in the plant. The original restoration and the reconstruction of individual buildings would not have been possible without the Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe .

At the end of the 19th century, the building documentation was sent to France by a French envoy . The Korean Hong Jong-wu , his country's first student in France, translated the work into French . So were diplomats of France at the Ecole des langues orientales in Paris this for learning the Korean language with use.

The construction

Site plan of the fortress

The fortress consists of 44 individual structures, a 5.7 km long and up to 7 m high wall and 4 structures with gates that allowed access to the old part of Hwaseong from all four directions. The system was adapted to the current needs in terms of weapon technology at the time. Centuries before, wall heights of forts of up to 20 meters were decisive for the war, an attack by artillery after the introduction of the new war technique in Asia would only have increased the damage to large walls and in reality offered less protection. Instead, attempts were made to make the wall thicker and to increase the stability of the masonry by using larger stones in the foundations and in the basic structure of the masonry. By combining stones with a length of up to 1.5 m and bricks in strategically important areas, attempts were made to reduce possible damage to the walls by artillery. More than 2,700 loopholes were built into the walls for defense, as well as openings through which hot water or liquid manure could be poured to ward off attackers.

The elements of the fortress in a list:

Originally located within the fortress was the newly created city of Hwaseong with the Haenggung palace ( 행궁 ), the Seongsinsa temple ( 성 신사 ), the royal library ( 규장각 , Gyujanggak ) and many other representative and functional buildings.

Over the past 200 years, the city has grown beyond the boundaries of the fortress walls, changed its cityscape and shifted its center southeast of the fortress complex. Even during the Joseon Dynasty from the fortress name Hwaseong deviation in district Suwon renamed the city followed in 1910 with the growth of the renaming, community Suwon , Stadtkreis Suwon and finally bringing to the city Suwon .

World Heritage

The Hwaseong Fortress was founded in 1997 following a decision of the 21st session of the World Heritage Committee added to the list of UNESCO world heritage. The reason for the entry states, among other things:

Hwaseong Fortress differed from the forts in China and Japan in that it combined military, political and commercial functions. The design by Jeong Yakyong, a leading scholar from the School of Practical Learning, was characterized by careful planning, the combination of residential and defense features, and the application of the latest scientific knowledge. Hwaseong is also unique in that it encompasses both flat and hilly land and uses the terrain for maximally effective defense.

The entry was made on the basis of criteria (ii) and (iv).

(ii): Hwaseong Fortress represents the pinnacle of 18th century military architecture, incorporating the best scientific ideas from Europe and East Asia, brought together through careful study by scholars from the School of Practical Learning. It shows important developments in construction and in the use of materials that reflect the exchange of scientific and technical achievements between East and West. The fortress had a major impact on the development of Korean architecture, town planning, landscaping, and related techniques.

(iv): Hwaseong combined traditional fortress construction methods with an innovative site layout that made it possible to provide defensive, administrative and commercial functions. Hwaseong is a testament to the rapid social and technical development of the 18th century in Korea.

literature

  • Sung-Yun Kim : Tangpyeong and Hwaseong: The Theory and Practice of Jeongjo's Politics and Hwaseong . In: Korea Journal . Vol. 41 No. 1 , spring. Korean National Commission for UNESCO , 2001, ISSN  0023-3900 , p. 137-165 (English).
  • Young-koo Roh : The Construction and Characteristics of Hwaseong Fortress in the Era of King Jeongjo . In: Korea Journal . Vol. 41 No. 1 , spring. Korean National Commission for UNESCO , 2001, ISSN  0023-3900 , p. 166-212 (English).
  • Fifty Wonders of Korea - Science and Technology . Volume 2 . Korean Spirit & Culture Promotion Project , Seoul 2008, ISBN 978-0-9797263-4-7 (English).
  • Doo Won Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon - history - monument preservation - documentation "Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe" - national and international relations . Otto Friedrich University, Bamberg July 13, 2010 (dissertation).
  • Hwaseong Fortress . In: Cultural Heritage Administration of South Korea (ed.): World Heritage in Korea . 2011, p. 64-77 (English).

Web links

Commons : Hwaseong Fortress  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e UNESCO World Heritage Center: Hwaseong Fortress. In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved February 6, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Glossary Volume, 2010, p.  126 .
  3. ^ Roh : The Construction and Characteristics of Hwaseong Fortress in the Era of King Jeongjo . In: Korea Journal . Vol. 41 No. 1 , 2001, p.  168 .
  4. ↑ Kim : Tangpyeong and Hwaseong . In: Korea Journal . Vol. 41 No. 1 , 2001, p.  160 .
  5. ^ Fifty Wonders of Korea - Science and Technology . 2008, p.  88 .
  6. ↑ a b Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Textband, 2010, p.  13 .
  7. ^ Fifty Wonders of Korea - Science and Technology . 2008, p.  94 .
  8. ↑ Kim : Tangpyeong and Hwaseong . In: Korea Journal . Vol. 41 No. 1 , 2001, p.  155 .
  9. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Textband, 2010, p.  34 .
  10. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Textband, 2010, p.  37 .
  11. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Textband, 2010, p.  233 .
  12. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Textband, 2010, p.  8 .
  13. ^ Fifty Wonders of Korea - Science and Technology . 2008, p.  89 .
  14. ^ Fifty Wonders of Korea - Science and Technology . 2008, p.  92 .
  15. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Volume of Figures and Tables, 2010, p.  12-14 .
  16. ↑ Cho : The Korean fortress city of Suwon . Volume of Figures and Tables, 2010, p.  303 .
  17. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Decision: CONF 208 VIII.C. In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved February 8, 2017 .

Coordinates: 37 ° 17 ′ 20 ″  N , 127 ° 0 ′ 52 ″  E