Hongyemun홍예문

About

Hongyemun, whose name means "rainbow-shaped gate," was begun in 1906 and completed in 1908 by a Japanese army engineering unit in charge of railway construction. Built by cutting through the side of Eungbongsan Mountain and stacking granite walls about 13 m high and about 7 m wide, it is a tunnel-like stone gate covering an area of 1,952.6㎡. At the time, the number of Japanese living in areas such as Jungang-dong and Gwan-dong in Incheon was rising rapidly, and they cut through Hongyemun to expand their territory toward Manseok-dong; the Japanese called it the "hole gate." It is said that construction took a long time because workers ran into an unexpectedly massive rock. As a cultural heritage site that shows Japanese civil engineering methods of the time, it has been preserved in its original form. A narrow two-lane road runs through the gate, and from the path above it you can take in a sweeping view of Incheon Port. (Source: Korea Heritage Service)