Vijaydurg Fort

Vijaydurg Fort is one of the famous historic sites situated in Sindhudurg District. Sindhudurg District isin the Konkan District. This fort is almost 800 years old. This fort is in the middle of the sea surrounded by water from all sides. So this fort was called Gheria.

This Fort was built during the Maratha period. Another name for this Fort was Victory Fort. It is one of the strongest and the oldest forts on the west coast of India. In the beginning this fort was ruled by Yadav’s and the Vijaynagar Kings. Later Shivaji Maharaj won this fort from Adilshah of Bijapur in 1653.This was one of the forts where Shivaji hoisted the saffron flag and at the Torna fort .

The fort has a secret underground tunnel from the fort to the Palatial home of the Dhulup in the village which is now blocked but if they open this to the public it would a tourist attraction for architectural purpose. This fort is also known as Gibraltar of Asia just as the replica of Gibraltar in Europe. This fort is spread in an area of six hectares.


During Shivaji’s period the fort was constructed by having three layer protection and under water dam like wall constructed to avoid the entry of the foreign ships in the passage of Waghotan creek. Many enemy ships met their watery grave after colliding on this wall as this wall cannot be seen above sea level.it is really amazing to know how the huge walls were built in the sea.

This fort is built by using laterite stones.There is also a temple known as Rameshwar temple inside Vijaydurg Fort.When you enter the fort,you can see many canon balls on the outer wall, which shows that after being attacked the fort was not destroyed. Even today you can see all empty canon balls lying in front of the secret meeting room. There was a big water pool running dry.

In short the fort was a complete fort in every aspect like it had huge meeting rooms,courts stables,soldier quarters and a naval dock used to build and repair Maratha warships. This fort looks pretty small but it takes three hours to tour the full fort. The main purpose of building this fort was to defend the shoreline of Arabian Sea.Apart from the historic site it is also a place for scenic beauty and making every moment memorable on the beaches. The beaches are surrounded by thick green forest with coconut trees and palms.

You can get the smell of juicy alphonso mangoes whenever you go there don’t forget to taste the local flavour of Malvan curry and solkadhi . Fish food is another delicacy in this area.

The proper time to visit this place is in the month of December since it is very cool. It is not advisable to go in summer as it is very hot and in the rainy season the showers are quiet heavy specially in the Konkan region. Make it a point not tomiss the sunset point as it is very attractive.

Travelling to Vijaydurg is convenient by all means of transport. That is by air where Panaji airport is the closet. By rail the stations are Kudal and Rajapur. By road it is accessible by all cities likeMumbai,Pune. Many state transport buses and private buses ply to this place.