India · 17th century
Suvarnadurg (translation: Golden Fort, also spelt Severndroog in English, a spelling sometimes also used for Savandurga) is a fort that is located on a small island in the Arabian Sea, near Harnai in Konkan, in the Indian state of Maharashtra on the west coast of India between Mumbai and Goa.
The literal meaning of Suvanadurga in the Marathi language is "Golden Fort" as it was considered as the pride or the "feather in the golden cap of Marathas". Built by Adilshah Navy for defence purposes, the fort also had a shipbuilding facility. The basic objective of establishing the fort was to counter enemy attacks, mainly by the colonialists of Europe and also by the local chieftains.
In the past, the land fort and the sea fort were connected by a tunnel, but this is now defunct. The present approach to the sea fort is only by boats from the Harnai port on the headland. It is a protected monument.
The fort also includes another small land fort called the Kanakadurga at the base of headland of Harnai port on the coast. Building of the fort is credited to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, founder of the Maratha Empire, in 1660. Subsequently, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, other Peshwas and the Angres further fortified the forts for defence purposes.
Text adapted from “Suvarnadurg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Suvarnadurg Fort ranks #2,814 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #107 of the 223 mapped in India. Founded 1660, it is older than 24% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 708 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,653 times in the last 60 days, more than 64% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how India compares in the castle statistics.
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