Castle Map

Fortress

Mirjan Fort

India · 16th century

Founded
c. 1550
Heritage status
Monument of National Importance
Location
Uttara Kannada District
Coordinates
14.4888°, 74.4175°
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Mirjan Fort in India
Photo: Sydzo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

The Mirjan Fort is located on the west coast of the Uttara Kannada district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The fort known for its architectural elegance has been the location of several battles in the past. It is about 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) from the National Highway 66 and 21 kilometres (13 mi) from Gokarna, the famous Hindu pilgrimage centre on the west coast of India.

According to the first historical version, Rani Chennabhairadevi of Gersoppa (under the Vijayanagara Empire) was initially credited with building the Mirjan Fort in the 16th century. She ruled for 54 years and also lived in the fort. During her reign, the port at Mirjan, which is 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the southeast of Karwar, was used for shipping pepper, saltpetre and betel nut to Surat. Gersoppa, a district annexed to Bednur, was famous for the pepper exported from this region. Consequently, the Portuguese gave Chennabhairadevi the epithet "Rani, the Pepper queen" ("Rainha de Pimenta" in Portuguese).

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

In the rankings

Mirjan Fort ranks #3,583 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #138 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. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,406 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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