Time of the visit: the 27th of oct.,2025

Naganeupseong is a remarkable example of a living fortress-town from Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, located near Suncheon.

What makes it special to be a potential world heritage site?

The fortress walls are impressively preserved: about 1,5km in length and up to 4 m tall with three main gates, forming a protective ring around the village.

Inside the walls, many families still live in traditional thatched-roof houses, using historical building styles and living their daily life.

Visitors can explore not just the architecture, but also participate in hands-on experiences: weaving, blacksmithing, traditional instruments, village school, etc.

Naganeupseong is a uniquely well-preserved fortress village in Korea where you can step back into the daily rhythms of the Joseon era and witness history still alive in its architecture and to a lesser degree in its traditions.

The entrance gates to the fortified village are still guarded today... by ladies who check your entry ticket.

I took bus 63 from the stop near the Suncheon Intercity Bus Terminal. Buses 68 and 16 also go to the village. Arriving in Naganeupseong, I first took a few photos of the bus schedule In Naganeupseong, there's an information board explaining which buses serve which routes. The bus schedule back to Suncheon is exemplary and accurate. There's also a lot of construction going on. Everything indicates that Naganeupseong is being prepared to be sent into the race

It was a sunny day, so I really enjoyed my time there. My original plan was to take bus nr16 to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Sameosa temple. However, I somehow didn't feel like another long bus ride... The next day I had to get up at 5:30 to catch my ferry from Wando to Jeju. Since my hotel was in Gwangju, I also had to go back there first. Instead, I decided to explore Naganeupseong thoroughly. It turned out that you can easily lose track of time there. There are many craft workshops where you can admire traditional craft techniques.

The old administrative buildings have all been renovated and populated with life-size figures depicting typical scenes from the building's history. There are many public restrooms and even some old-looking buildings equipped with state-of-the-art media technology, which, for example, shows traditional festivals and dances. There is also a relatively large museum within the fortifications with free admission.

I circled the fortifications completely.. twice – which, by the way, are very easy to walk on.

Naganeupseong is UNESCO-worthy because its architecture uniquely integrates defensive stone walls, traditional thatched-roof houses, and a perfectly preserved Joseon-era town layout, forming a rare example of a harmonious fusion between military design and everyday civilian life, where the spatial organization—from the fortress gates to the administrative quarters and private homes—remains entirely intact and authentically reflects the social hierarchy, construction methods, and urban planning principles of Korea’s premodern era.

There are fortified villages in many countries around the globe...Tegernheim in Bavaria/Germany' comes to my mind...or Les Bastides in France,or San Gimignano in Italy or Albarracín in Spain or the Hakka Tulou villages in China.And of course the fortified German-Saxon villages in Romania.

Naganeupseong is unique because it was state-built,not a community or religious project( church,temple, monastery,religious institutions) or built by the nobility,clans or feudal lords.

The population included soldiers, civil officials, and commoners, forming a self-sufficient administrative fortress town.

It combined military, administrative, and residential functions in one space.It reflects Confucian urban order — hierarchy, symmetry, and state authority — rather than medieval feudalism or clan defense.

And last but not least it remains a living village, preserving Joseon-era life and architecture

My thumps go up...very high.

There were almost exclusively Korean tourists, apart from a busload of very old French people, who disappeared from the village scene again after a short time. However, I fear that Naganeupseong is on its way to becoming a museum village. The number of tourists must be extremely high on weekends, and most of the residents are elderly. Furthermore, South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world.In a few years the situation there will probably be totally different from today's one. Probably a dead disneyland-like museum village.