Our visit to Vasai Fort, Mumbai - 28th November, 2014
Even though I had stayed in
Mumbai for more than 40 years, I never got an opportunity to visit Vasai Fort.
Hence I decided to visit this fort during this trip Mumbai. Self accompanied by my uncle (Sangam Iyerex-World Bank
from the US) visited this fort today in the morning. As planned we both met in Malad Station and
took a train to Vasai Road. We reached Vasai Road by around 9.45 am. Then we
decided to go by a bus to this fort. However, we changed our mind and went by a
auto and Rs.100/- one way.
Vasai Fort was constructed by the
Portuguese in the 15th century and most of the locals here are East Indians.
This fort was ruled over by many rulers such as the Portuguese, the Marathas (Chimmaji
Appa - 1707–1741) was the son of Balaji Vishwanath Bhat and the younger brother of Bajirao Peshwa of Maratha Empire. He was an able military commander who liberated the western coast of India from Portuguese
rule. The crowning glory of his career was the capture of Vasai Fort
from the Portuguese (who had technically advanced weapons and artillery at
their disposal) in a hard fought battle.and
finally the British and in the course of time Bassein became a flourishing
shipbuilding centre and the famous Bassein stone was very much in demand.
Despite the fort is so old and in
the condition of ageing, there are many remains, which are still livens the
wonderful architecture of the olden days.
Some structures looked like Portuguese churchs, reminded me of the tall
and beautiful churches in Old Goa. In fact, the entire place reminded me of
Goa.
The doors of the church were
massive and the roof was very high. Next door to the church there was a huge
funnel shaped tower and right next to it there were rooms around a storey tall
with beautiful carvings on the pillars and arches. These are some of the best
ruins I have seen till date. Everything about this place was beautiful, I am
trying to imagine how they must have built this place. A picture, they say, is
worth a thousand words. But pictures alone could not do justice to the beauty
of the architecture.
There are many broken down
structures around the church. These structures are in a bad state.
Finally we reached the main
entrance to the fort. It had two doors
through which one could enter the fort. Through these two entrances one can
easily get into the sea too.
The walls of the fort are in very
good condition. It was nice to observe that these walls had survived five
centuries. At this end of the fort, there were many broken-down ships, trawlers
and anchors which were ageing peacefully.
Architecture excellence can be seen
from the attached photos.
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