Although the first human settlement at Mount Namhansan dates back to ancient times, large-scale settlements only began to form there after the Gwangju-bu Government Office was moved to the fortress in 1627 (the 5th year of the reign of King Injo). Sanseong-ri has been the name of the administrative district of the village within the fortress since 1914, when the Japanese undertook sweeping reforms of Joseon’s local administrative system.
During the period of the Gwangju Magistrate in the late Joseon dynasty, the village of Sanseong-ri was divided into two administrative units, Nam-dong in the southern area and Buk-dong in the northern area, with the road running from Gwangju Temporary Palace to the East Gate serving as the boundary between them.

In 1910, the village of Sanseong-ri was incorporated into Gwangju-eup, Gunnae-myeon, while the village was divided into five administrative units, i.e. the east, west, south, north, and central parts of Gwangju-eup. Then, in 1914, the five villages of Gwangju-eup were integrated into Sanseong-ri, Jungbu-myeon, and have remained so to this day.
In 1917, when the Gwangju County Office was moved from the fortress to Gyeongan-dong, the village of Sanseong-ri, lying within the walls of Namhansanseong, which had played the role of a great military and administrative center for over 300 years, began to decline. As this mountain village had no fertile farmland, and was just a local administrative center with little in the way of effective transportation, it was difficult for the inhabitants to continue making a living once the security and postal agencies left along with the Gwangju County Office.
Having once had some 4,000 inhabitants in about 1,000 households, the population of the village began to decrease as many of its inhabitants left for Seoul, Gwangju, Yeoju, Icheon, and Yangpyeong. From around the time of national independence to the Korean War, the number of households decreased to around 70 or 80, turning Sanseong-ri into a quiet, depopulated mountain village. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Sanseong-ri formed an anti-deforestation association to protect the pine trees inside the fortress, which remained active until 1945.