Deokjusanseong (덕주산성)
& Deokjusa Temple
Deokjusanseong lies in the Woraksan National Park, a gorgeous, protected area of wooded mountain scenery that reminds one of an ancient painting. It’s a strange fortress in that, similar to Mungyeong Saejae, it doesn’t follow the usual circular design. Instead, Deokjusanseong seems to have been premised on a layered or defense in depth scheme protecting Deokjusa Temple up the mountain. The scenery around the castle sites is absolutely breathtaking, making the view from virtually any angle quite incredible!
Constructed during the Unified Silla Period (668-935 A.D.), the castle was, like all those in Chungcheong Province, built to help control the extremely rich Han River Valley near Chungju. Yet its most famous moment came in 1253 when local people mounted its parapets to resist the 5th Mongol invasion. While the battle was a loss, and the fortifications taken, the temple survived.
Deokjusa Temple itself is older, even more scenic, and the subject of much online misinformation. Established by Silla in 586, it was originally called Woraksa. It was renamed near the end of the Unified Silla period after a noteworthy stay by Princess Deokju, daughter of the last king of Unified Silla. Assuming the princess must have established the temple you can find many places online claiming just that. The only problem is the temple was established about 300 years before the royal young lady was born. Regardless, Deokjusa would appear to be one of the oldest, continuously occupied temples in Korea.
The South Gate of Deokjusanseong is most noticeable, as the wall would have stretched from cliff to cliff, effectively blocking the narrow valley. Currently there’s a break in the reconstructed wall to allow for vehicle traffic along the valley floor.
Deokjusanseong is surrounded by the natural beauty of Woraksan National Park.
The wall leading west from the South Gate disappears into thick vegetation, but clearly moves up the hill at a pretty steep rate. It looks to have been newly renovated.
That said, there’s only so far you can follow it before you reach warning signs. Still…maybe someday!
To the east of the South Gate, the wall once ran down to the cliff visible here, though I have my suspicions it actually angled back to the left edge of the picture. Regardless, it would have required a water gate there since there’s a stream just beyond the lower trees pictured above.
The East Gate is about halfway up the hill toward Deokjusa Temple and completely caught us by surprise. There’s not a lot of information available related to Deokjusanseong so the entire experience was essentially discovery learning. But this site was pretty cool as the third “line” of fortifications going up the hill had this gate as its entry control point.
Across the road, a very visibly solid stone wall (not masonry lined packed earth) rises with the steep terrain before disappearing uphill.
It really is quite an impressive construct!
I couldn’t find any signs, but it seems likely to me what you’re seeing here was the original path uphill to the temple, long before the paved road to the right.
Across the road the mountain stream trickles its way downhill, providing another sample of the incredible scenic beauty all around this place.
The stairs leading up to Deokjusa Temple.
The main temple hall of Deokjusa.
Again, its easy to understand why the monks chose this spot, as its simply incredible!
The North Gate stands alone with rural houses built all around it. It’s so nondescript—since none of the attached wall sections have survived—that we nearly missed it!
The wall crawling west from the North Gate would have anchored on the cliffs across the valley and its shallow stream.
This little vacation nook definitely made the list of places to which we intend to return. Both to more fully explore the existing wall sections that zig-zag their way up the mountain, but also to partake in the “pension” (cabin) type accommodations for which the area is famous.
One branch of Chungju Lake. Passed by it so many times that day, we finally had to stop and snap a few pics.