Gomosanseong Fortress-The Gateway to North Gyeongsangbukdo

North Gyeongsangbukdo or Gyeongsang Province is a province  in eastern South Korea, which is divided into 10 cities, Mungyeong is one of them. Mungyeong owns a lengthy history and known today for its various historic and scenic tourist attractions. Actually Whenever speaking of the city name Mungyeong , everyone always thinks of Mungyeong Saejae. But Gomosanseong Fortress is such a hidden attraction in Mungyeong that people doesn’t aware much about.

So if you are planning to have a tour at Gyeonsangbukdo, you can think about Gomosanseong Fortress. To know more details about this beautiful scenic destination please stick with this article.

Though I’ve been to Mungyeong city pretty few times. But somehow I missed visiting this significantly historic place. I live in Chungju city, from here Gomosanseong fortress distance is only 51 km, so it should be happened earlier. But no worries, better late than never.

How to get to Gomosanseong Fortress

Public transport

I don’t recommend visiting Gomosanseong Fortress by public transport. Because it is just not practical as it takes about three to four hours by bus from Seoul or Daegu, whereas its location next to the highway makes it a perfect stop by car.

Even if you want to go to Gomosanseong Fortress by public transportation you can do it at the Jinnam’ stop in front of Jinnam Rest Area.

By Car

Gomosanseong Fortress is located less than an hour south of Chungju and about an hour and twenty minutes north of the Banwoldang subway station area in Daegu. There are two routes available of gomosanseong fortress. Either way takes almost same time. You can use any of those according to your preference. Both access has parking lots.

• Gomosangseong Parking lot
• Jinnam service area parking lot

Well, I along with my husband and daughter went to visit Gomoseong fortress. We had chosen route 2 that is jinnam service area parking lot to park our car. This parking lot is quite big to park many cars or buses at a time.

Ojeongsan Mountain Climbing Guide

To start with, the mountain climbing guide you will find right after you head towards the fortress. The Yeonggang River surrounds the west and the south, and the rugged ridge extends from Ojeongsan Mountain (810m) to the east. 

Jinnam Stirring and Gomosanseong Fortress Guide

The Jinnamgyoban Area, where all these sites are located, has selected as the first of the Eight Scenic Views of Gyeongsangbuk-do for its beautiful landscape. You can still see the traces left by the ancestors of modern-day Koreans, including a group of taverns next to the road and a shrine. A long time ago, this was a very strategically important location.

This is the the entrance to Gomosanseong Fortress that we encountered first!

What more are there to visit

There are not only Gomosanseong Fortress but also many places worth visiting like

This time we couldn’t entered in the Omija Theme Tunnel because we reached there late. just before the tunnel has closed. so, kept those unvisited places in the list of our next time visiting places.

Fortress wall and gate

We walked up the hill past Mungyeong Omija Theme Tunnel towards Gomosanseong Fortress. After a short climb within the greenery, you see the fortress wall and gate in front of you.

The size of the castle is about 1.6 km long and the height of the wall is 2~5m.  It is about 4~7m wide. Most of the old walls has now demolished, and the south and north gates, Only part of the eastern wall are remains.

Gomosanseong Fortress overlooks the magnificent scenery of Jinnamgyoban, one of the top eight scenic spots in Gyeongbuk. Gomosanseong Fortress is believed to has been built to prevent invasion from the north in the 5th century during the Three Kingdoms Period.

The charm of Gomosanseong Fortress is that it allows you to see the magnificent scenery of Jinnamgyoban from the top, rather than the fortress itself.

After climbing pretty higher we had this amazing view of the valley with the river and the mountains. It seemed like we immersed ourselves in mystical realms.

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Now time to go down to explore other roads of this fortress, right? We did the same.

From top of the Fortress this green road takes you down. And I must say this is such blissful ambient to sooth not only eyes but also soul.

By the way, it needs to mention that, this path leads to another Gomosanseong Fortress parking lot as was previously stated. If you park your car in that parking lot you have to take this path to go up to the Fortress.

Traditional houses

There we found some years old trees, maybe be some hundred or more than that old!

What are the better place to experience ancient kingdoms charms? Gomosanseong Fortress is such a place that gives you a nice perspective of how the fortress would have looked but still holds its authentic historic aura.