Guangyu Castle

Guangyu Castle

Guangyu castle, one of Qiu's earthen fortresses in Shushan, is located in Shujing village, Taixi Township, Youxi County, Fujian Province. It was built in 1850 A.D. in Daoguang of Qing Dynasty and is a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit. Guangyu castle is built according to the mountain situation, covering an area of 2600 square meters, with a drop of nearly 15 meters between the front and the back. It is a typical hillside style earthen castle with two functions of residence and defense.

Similar to Fujian Tulou, Fujian Tulou is also a large-scale residential building with regional characteristics, but it is scattered in the countryside and rarely known by outsiders.

Building structure

Guangyu fort was built by three generations of the ancestors of Qiu family, Chang Hougong. It has two functions of residence and defense. It covers an area of 2600 square meters and a building area of 2200 square meters. According to the mountain situation, the fort is divided into four levels of platform construction, with a difference of nearly 15 meters between the front and rear buildings; the door is made into a miniature urn shaped, with a shooting turret in the door, a two-level large patio in the middle, and two-level wing rooms on both sides of the patio.

A magnificent castle stands on the hillside. Fort gate, two-level hall, front building, patio, two-level wing room, main hall, shelter, back flower terrace, back building, blockhouse style turret and ladder shaped raceway are very regular courtyard style dwellings. The watchtower and gun hole are set in the corner building, which makes the gallery style earth building have defensive function at the same time. The main gate frame of Tupu is a stone arch structure. The gate is reinforced with iron sheet and rivets. The couplet on both sides is "Guangqian gathers Baifu, yuhou celebrates Qianxiang". At that time, the county magistrate personally inscribed the horizontal plaque of "generous Liufeng" and hung high on the main gate.

historical background

According to the existing literature research, Fujian Tubao was built in the Song Dynasty, developed in the Yuan Dynasty, matured in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, prevailed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and ended in the Republic of China. Xia zhujiu, a professor of Taiwan University, pointed out in "my understanding of Sanming earthen fortress in Fujian Province" that "survival and security" is the main purpose of constructing earthen fortress, and the powerful clan force is the most important force to create earthen fortress space. Xia zhujiu believed that in the turbulent times, when the government was not enough to establish order, Tubao was the best foothold for the clan to survive.

Address: Shujing village, Taixi Township

Longitude: 118.230865

Latitude: 26.101149

Chinese PinYin : Guang Yu Bao