When people think of lighthouses, they usually picture structures guarding the sea — but in Naju's Yeongsanpo district stands a lighthouse built on a riverbank. Built in 1915, Yeongsanpo Lighthouse is Korea's only inland (river) lighthouse. Beyond simply illuminating the shipping route, this lighthouse also served as a station for monitoring the water level of the Yeongsan River — a function that shows just how central this river was to the daily lives of local residents.
Before the Yeongsan River estuary dam was built, the Yeongsan River was, quite literally, a lifeline for the people of South Jeolla Province. Goods and people traveled up and down the river, and Yeongsanpo served as the central port along this route. But the estuary dam, begun in 1978 and completed in 1981, permanently severed the shipping route connecting the river to the sea. This lighthouse, which spent years standing largely without function, took on new meaning in the 2000s, when tourist boats — traditional yellow-sailed vessels called hwangpo dotbae — began sailing the river again. Its practical navigational role may be gone, but it remains a symbol still holding onto the memory of a shipping route that was once the beating heart of this region's commerce.