Walking through Mokpo today, it's easy to assume the city has always been a port town by nature. The opposite is closer to the truth. Before the port opened to foreign trade in 1897, Mokpo wasn't an international trading hub at all — it was a small fishing settlement anchored by "Mokpojin," a modest Joseon-dynasty naval garrison built to guard against Japanese pirates and other raiders along the coast. The name "Mokpo" itself comes directly from this garrison. In other words, the city didn't create the port and then get named after it — a small military outpost's name eventually became the name of the entire city that grew up around it.
Mokpojin sat forgotten and overgrown for a long time, but around the 120th anniversary of the port's opening, the site was excavated and rebuilt as a history park. Tucked into the alleys of today's Manho-dong neighborhood, it draws far fewer visitors than the more famous Museum of Natural History building or the mural-covered alleys of Seosan-dong. But it's essentially the only place in the city that shows Mokpo's face before 1897. If you're planning a Mokpo itinerary around the port-opening era, chronologically this modest park — not the grander colonial-era buildings — is where the story actually starts.