Fort William (West Bengal)

Fort William, officially Vijay Durg, is a fort in Hastings, Calcutta (Kolkata). It was built during the early years of Britain's administration of Bengal. It sits on the eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganga. One of Kolkata's most enduring British-era military fortifications, other than those in Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai), it extends over an area of seventy hectares.

The fort was named after King William III. In front of the Fort is the Maidan, the largest park in the country. An internal guard room became the Black Hole of Calcutta. Today the fort is the headquarters of Eastern Command of the Indian Army.

Text adapted from “Fort William, West Bengal” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort William (West Bengal) ranks #549 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #21 of the 172 mapped in India. Founded 1696, it is older than 23% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 8,719 times in the last 60 days, more than 91% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗