Castle Map

Fortress

Visapur Fort

India · 18th century

Founded
1713
Heritage status
Monument of National Importance
Location
Pune district
Coordinates
18.72173°, 73.49017°
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Visapur Fort in India
Photo: Loharjay · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Visapur Fort (also called Visapoor Fort) is a hill fort near Visapur village in Maharashtra, India. It is a part of the Lohagad-Visapur fortification.

It is located in Pune district, 5 to 6 km from Malavli Railway station out of which 3 km is steep road. It has an elevation of 1084 meters above sea level. It is built on the same plateau as Lohagad.

It was built during 1713-1720 CE by Balaji Vishwanath, the first Peshwa of Maratha Empire. Visapur fort was built much later than Lohagad but the histories of the two forts are closely linked.

In 1818, when reducing the Peshwa's forts, the strength of Lohagad and its fame as the treasury of the Maratha kingdom, caused the English to make special preparations for its attack. A detachment of 380 European and 800 native soldiers, with a battering train, summoned from Konkan, were joined by artillery from Chakan, and two other British battalions. On 4 March 1818, Visapur was attacked and occupied.

Making use of its higher elevation and proximity to Lohagad, the British troops set up their cannons on Visapur and bombarded Lohagad, forcing the Marathas to flee. Thus, in 1818, Lohagad-Visapur was taken over by the British in 1818 AD and placed under the command of a Colonel Prother. Considering, the strategic importance of Visapur, both the north (Konkan) and the south (Deccan) gateways were blown up, and except a few huts, nothing was left standing. In contrast, most of Lohagad fort is still intact.

Visapur Fort is larger and at a higher elevation than its twin fort- Lohagad. Within the fort are caves, cisterns of water, a decorated arch and old houses. These two roofless buildings surrounded by outer or veranda walls said to have once been Government offices. The ruins of a large stone-built house are known as the Peshwa's palace. In addition to a huge carving of Hanuman, there are also several temples dedicated to him scattered all over the place.

There is a well which local legend says was built by the Pandavas. In 1885, near the north wall there was an iron gun ten feet long and of four-inch bore, marked with the Tudor Rose and Crown, flanked by the letters E. R. This is probably a gun of Queen Elizabeth's reign probably taken as bounty from an English ship and presented to the Peshwa by Kanhoji Angre or some other commander of the Maratha Navy.

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

In the rankings

Visapur Fort ranks #3,255 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #125 of the 223 mapped in India. Founded 1713, it is older than 20% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 685 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,047 times in the last 60 days, more than 70% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Pune, 44 km away. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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