India · 16th century
Fort Reis Magos ranks #8,980 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #220 of the 223 mapped in India. Founded c. 1550, it is older than 36% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 887 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how India compares in the castle statistics.
Fort Reis Magos, also referred to as Fortaleza de Bardez, is located in the locality of the same name, in the taluka (district) of Bardez, North Goa district, state of Goa, on the west coast of India.
Goa was conquered by the second viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, D. Afonso de Albuquerque, during his second offensive, on 25 November 1510. He chose it as the seat of the capital of the Viceroyalty of India, because of the excellence of its position, easily defensible both from the land side and from the sea. To that end he began a first fortification, the so-called "Forte Velho de Goa", whose works are attributed to the master mason Tomás Fernandes. It was followed by Fort Reis Magos and various bastioned lines of defence. In the following decades the city came to be defended by a wall and by a set of fortifications, linked to one another, among which the Fortaleza da Aguada, the Forte de Nossa Senhora do Cabo and the Forte de Pangim stood out.
Machine-translated from “Fortaleza dos Reis Magos de Goa” on the Portuguese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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