Baekje Historic Areas

Being only able to visit one cluster of sites, we focused on Iksan and Wanggung-ri, following Philipp's recommendation. Both mark the final bout of the Baekje Kingdom around 600-700 CE, before it was swallowed up by the neighboring Silla Kingdom. Baekje had been on a downward spiral for a while. Their last semi-great, i.e., ambitiuous, king, Mu, tried to revitalize the kingdom by planning a new capital around Mireuksa and strengthening the state. However, he ultimately failed, and his successor was the last king of an independent Baekje.

The other two locations mark earlier periods of Baekje (Gongju 475–538, Buyeo 538-660). In the southward shift of the capitals, you can see the continuous growing pressure from the north and the competing kingdoms.

What you see today in Mireuksa was discovered only in 1980. The tangible structures were reconstructed, with the second restoration ending in 2018. What I found well done were the markings of the city layout (see picture). You could imagine the city and walking its streets, all the while not imagining too much.

Wanggung-ri is the lesser of the two sites. You get the hills and can envision the fortifications, but Mireuksa leaves the better overall impression. Mireuksa also features the better museum with stellar artifacts (do not miss).

Personally, I was left a bit wanting. These structures are parallel in time to the Roman Empire. The site pales in comparison to the remains of earlier sites from Antiquity (any site in Greece) and …

On a sunny June day in 2023, I arrived at Iksan station (conveniently right next to the intercity bus station) to see the Mireuksa Temple Site. All you have to do from here is go straight (crossing one road) and look for the nearest bus stop on the right side (bus direction: away from the station), and you can take city bus #41 from there to the site in just under an hour. As one may already expect from previous reviews, there is not so much to the site, but really, one may take up to an hour taking things slow and thoroughly appreciating all the little details (there are several markers to read too) as the distances in the vast open space with beautiful natural surroundings can be deceptively long; even more time would be needed to check out the museum. Be warned, the bus may pass by early, so indeed, it may be unwise to commute all the way here if you are in a rush. Still, I found Iksan to be extra convenient for my itinerary since I planned to be in Jeonju by afternoon, and Mireuksa seemed to be one of the most definitive components of this serial site.

Arriving at the site, you will first encounter two scenic little ponds, one on each side of the path. Ascending towards the temple grounds, you will next find two original stone flagpoles. Finally, on the highest level, with the beautiful Yonghwasan (Dragon Flower Mountain) in the …

After four days of great joy in southwestern South Korea seeing many interesting sites, my friends and I drove back from Jeonju to Seoul in early morning with a plan to have a brief stop in Nonsan to see UNESCO listed Seowon and Gongju for Baekje sites. With some problem with GPS that took us to the only prepaid card highway exit which we did not have, with help from locals, we finally got back to the highway but decided to go to Gongju directly after noted from GPS that 1-hour detour to other exit if we still want to visit Nonsan, a terrible situation for WHS enthusiast.

When we reached Gongju, the traffic was really bad, since there was a festival in the city center next to the Gongsanseong Fortress, we struck in the traffic in front of the fortress for almost one hour, a really boring way to admire World Heritage Site! Since there was no hope to find available parking slot and we really wanted to go away from city center, so we decided to pass Gongsanseong Fortress and went to the famous King Muryeong Tomb instead. With a great surprised there were only few tourists here. We walked to the tomb to happily discovered that the entrance fee was waived due to the festival. At first we went to see the original tombs and other lesser tombs nearby, the tombs were a bit similar to the Silla in Gyeongju, but since the tombs were …

Visit February 2020 - I managed to visit all components of the Baekje Historic Areas on my Korea trip.

Gongju cluster
I started in Gongju, visiting the Gongsanseong fortress upon arrival in the afternoon. It is not a spectacular, but still a nice fortress, with reconstructed gates and earthen walls. You need at least an hour to visit. It’s quite big. After spending the night in this underwhelming town, I visited the royal tombs in the morning. In hind side I should have pushed my schedule the day before for 15 minutes as this was roughly the time I needed for the visit. The tombs are not accessible all you can do is visit the museum with the replicas. Nice, but not the real deal.

Buyeo cluster
I started with Busosanseong fortress and the attached archeological site. Both very underwhelming. Only fractions of the buildings are left and the fortress is rather a forested hill that serves as a town park. It is really hard to spot the elements that once created the fortress.

Jeongnimsa temple is also not a great site. The temple is basically gone and all that is left is a pagoda and the layout of where the buildings used to stand. I first intended to walk from the parking lot close to the fortress, but due to the entrance being located on the other side of a huge compound, went back to take my car.

The royal tombs and the city wall …

I visited this WHS in April 2017. Out of the 8 locations spread out in Iksan, Gongju and Buyeo, I chose to visit the 4 different locations in Buyeo, namely the Royal Tombs of Neungsan-ri, the Naseong City Wall, the Archaeological Site of Gwanbuk-ri and Busosanseong Fortress as well as the Jeongnimsa Temple Site.

From what I had read about the Baekje inscription what struck me to be of OUV were the different stone pagodas and peculiar Buddha Statues. Gongju lacks these elements and at the moment the most interesting stone pagoda in Iksan is being restored so I opted for Buyeo, which also has an interesting fortress, an overgrown city wall and older Baekje painted royal tombs (photo).

To get to Buyeo I took the subway to Seoul's Nambu Bus Terminal and bought an intercity bus ticket to Buyeo Bus Terminal. This same bus went to Gongju which is only a few kilometres away but I had quite a lot of ground to cover in Buyeo so I never made it to Gongju. The public transport system in South Korea is really convenient and efficient and although I'm certainly not a fan of public transport usually, I was really impressed by the service given overall.

Once I arrived at the Buyeo Bus Terminal, I decided to catch a taxi (around 4 euros) instead of waiting for another bus (number 701 or 709 to Wangneung Parking Lot Bus Stop) to get to the Royal Tombs of Neunsan-ri and the Naseong …

The Baekje Historic Areas cover 8 archaeological sites in 3 clusters, representing the 3 former capital cities of this historic kingdom. During my stay in Seoul, I visited the Gongju cluster on a day trip by public transport. It was my first experience with Korea's long-distance bus system since my earlier visit in 2001, and it was a real pleasure to be transported on time for only 7.20 EUR on a luxury coach with wide and comfy seats. It took 1.5 hours from the Seoul Express Bus Station to Gongju Bus Station.

Gongju nowadays has an odd city plan, with the river splitting it in two. A quick look at this provincial city proves that not everywhere in South Korea is as modern and prosperous as Seoul. The two components of the WHS are clearly visible from afar, each covering a hilltop near the river bridge closest to the city center. I first walked to Gongsanseong fortress. As I had spent the day before at Namhansanseong, I couldn’t bring up much enthusiasm for yet another Korean fortress. The flags are yellow here (“the national colour of Baekje, representing the center of the universe”), the walls are steep and the main area is without many sites of interest. Very little remains of the Baekje area: the absolute low point is the “Site of Baekje Building”, which is just a flat piece of grassland.

After half an hour or so I decided to move on to the second component of …

November 2016. The whole site is divided into 3 different clusters. Due to reconstruction process at Mireuksa Temple I decided to focus on Gongju and Buyeo areas.

Gongju - two different sites: Gongsanseong Fortress and Royal Tombs in Songsan-ri. At first do not buy combine ticket to the sites - separate are a little bit cheaper (local Gongju Archeological Museum mentioned on a combined ticket may be visited free of charge).

Gongsanseong Fortress - well preserved fortress walls but there is not much inside (only a few reconstructed temples or pavilions). Some reconstruction works are still in progress (including huge area around Lotus Pond). Not to be missed - nice views of a city from different spots while strolling on the walls.

Royal Tombs in Songsan-ri - walking distance from Gongsanseong Fortress. There is a small museum with copies of some royal tombs including the most famous tomb of king Muryeong and vast area of real tombs (locked, impossible to visit). Some excavations are also available on a way to Archeological Museum (around one km from the last tomb, the path is well signed)

Buyeo - Busosanseong Fortress - much bigger than the fortress in Gongju but also less preserved (at least the walls), also contains some (mostly) reconstructed buildings (temples). Do not miss Nakhwaam Rock (the cliff of falling flowers) where royal ladies of Baekje Kingdom jumped off to kill themself during the invasion of Shilla army. Allow at least 2 hours as the area is quite huge. In …

The two most important sites in this serial property are the Tomb of King Muyeong and Mireuksa Temple. The famous tomb, which was discovered intact, became one of Korea's most famous archeological discoveries. The tomb included items from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. The interior of the tomb can only be visited by an onsite replica. Like Kaesong and Gyeongju, this WHS is made up of mostly tombs, fortresses, and temples. The fortress in Gongju and Buyeo are both pleasant walks, but have been partially rebuilt in later historical periods. I am very interested in visiting the Naesong City Wall, which (to my knowledge) was never rebuilt following the Three Kingdoms period.

While Gongju and Buyeo are very easy to visit, it gets more complicated in Iksan. First and foremost if you visit Iksan hopefully it's by car, as these sites are spread out and only few of them are accessible by bus. I visited Mireuksa temple site, and the Wanggung-ri Palace site. These historic areas really feel like archeological sites. There are few remains, but fascinating nonetheless. Interestingly enough the famous and enormous Mireuksa 5-story pagoda (originally 7-story) no longer exists in a sense. Pretty much the only major remain at the site, Mireuksa pagoda has been dismantled to strengthen the base and back portion. So what you see is a huge building over a largely disappeared pagoda. The original stones are numbered and laid out over an area the size of a basketball court, all properly numbered and …