Fort Dansborg

Fort Dansborg, locally called Danish Fort, is a Danish fort located in the shores of Bay of Bengal in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) in the Mayiladuthurai District, state of Tamil Nadu. Fort Dansborg was built in the land ceded by Thanjavur king Ragunatha Nayak in an agreement with Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde in 1620 and acted as the base for Danish settlement in the region during the early 17th century. The fort is the second largest Danish fort after Kronborg. The fort was sold to the British in 1845 and along with Tranquebar, the fort lost its significance as the town was not an active trading post for the British.

After India's independence in 1947, the fort was used as an inspection bungalow by the state government until 1978 when its archaeology department took control of the fort. The fort is now used as a museum where the major artifacts of the fort and the Danish colonial empire in India are displayed.

The fort was renovated twice in modern times, by the Tranquebar Association with the help of the Danish royal family and the state's archaeology department in 2001 and by the state's tourism department in 2011.

Text adapted from “Fort Dansborg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Dansborg ranks #2,373 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #90 of the 179 mapped in India. Founded 1620, it is older than 31% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 626 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,762 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗