This Vijaydurg Fort is a testimony to the Marathas naval prowess. Located at a distance of around 500km from the South of Mumbai, was earlier named ‘Gheria’. This is due to the fact that this fort was surrounded on all 3 sides by the sea. After Shivaji, the Maratha king conquered this fort in 1653 from the Bijapur Adishah, it was renamed as Vijaydurg. This can be termed as the ‘fort of victory’ as Vijay means ‘victory’. This was a 17 acre fort used as a base for repairing and harboring the warships of the Maratha kingdom.
Vijaydurg fort is situated at the ‘mouth’ of the River Vaghotan that separates the districts of Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri. This large fort is mighty due to its excellent architecture. It was considered to be impregnable due to the shallow creek of 40 kms. This was a ‘natural’ protection. Massive enemy ships were unable to approach this fort due to this creek. One of the wall has cannon balls marks even now.
Laterite stones have been used for the construction of this fort. A compound wall of around 10 m in height, 300 feet from the fort was the defense against any ships wanting to attack. Most of the ships that tried to attack sank after colliding with the wall. For emergency evacuation, this fort has a tunnel that is 200 m long.
Due to the imposing presence the fort was also known as ‘Eastern Gibraltar’.
Inside the Fort
The visitor gets to the inner quarters of the fort from a pathway that is running along the ‘main’ wall.
There is an open courtyard at the entrance where you can see many cannon balls and also a cannon.
There is a house built in stone when you turn left from the gate. This was the secret meeting room, known as ‘Khalbat-khana’. You come to the top of the fort wall once you climb a few steps from here. You can tour the premises and walk along this wall. At present, tourists are not allowed here as a small part of this wall has collapsed.
Best Places to Stay
You don’t have many options to stay in Vijaydurg Fort or even around. The ‘Green Valley Fort View Resort’ works a comfortable place to stay. This is run by MTDC, or you can choose the ‘Hotel Vijaydurg Palace’.
Best Places to Eat
Most of the ‘in-house’ restaurants serve economical and delicious food. Solkadhi and sea-food are the specialties of Vijaydurg.
How to reach Vijaydurg
You have the options of reaching this fort by road, rail or even air. There are many buses available from Mumbai, Rajapur and more. The fare is determined by the bus you choose. The average costs works to be around Rs.400.
Rajapur and Kudal are the closes stations to this fort. There are trains on a regular basis from most of the towns and cities outsides or within Maharashtra.
You can fly down to Goa, Panaji airport and carry on to Vijaydurg. From the main town the distance is around 180kms. From here you can take a bus or train.
