Rachol Fort

It was originally erected by the Sultanate of Bijapur, then ruled by Ismail Adil Shah, to defend the left bank of the Zuari river.

Conquered in AD 1520 by Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of the Vijayanagara Kingdom; he handed over this fort in the same year to the Portuguese Empire in exchange for protection of southern India against the northern India Mughal Empire.

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it had a hundred pieces of artillery, a significant number for those times.

After the siege that was imposed by the Maratha Empire leader Sambhaji in AD 1684, it was remodeled as decided by the Viceroy of Portuguese India, Dom Francisco de Tavora, 1st Count of Alvor, as epigraphic inscription, which reads: THE COUNT OF ALVOR, VICEROY OF INDIA, ORDERED THIS FORTRESS'S RENOVATION AFTER DEFENDING THE SIEGE OF SAMBHAJI ON 22 APRIL 1684.It underwent a new reform campaign in AD 1745, on the order of Pedro Miguel de Almeida Portugal e Vasconcelos, the first Marquis of Alorna.

Its gate has been a monument protected by the government of Goa, Daman and Diu since 1983.

Arch of Rachol Fort