About Vijaydurg Fort

Vijaydurg Fort or Gheria Fort or Fort Victor is one of the prominent sea forts encircled by the Arabian Sea on three sides & is the oldest fort on the Sindhudurga coastline. The fort is also being referred to as “Gheria” as it is situated in the village “Girye”. 

Vijaydurg fort is located in Devgad district. This fort was built by King Bhoj in 1205 and was known as “Gheria”. Later Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took over this fort and named it “Vijaydurga”. A dilapidated board at the entrance of the fort relates its history. One of the best views of the fort is from the jetty. The fort stretches out into the sea and a walk inside its precincts is worthwhile. The earlier fort covered area of 5 acres and was surrounded by sea on all the 4 sides. Over the years the eastern trench was reclaimed and the road was constructed thereon.

Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj added triple rows of huge walls, umpteen towers and spacious inner buildings to it and strengthened it in the 17th century. Vijaydurg’s beach is a stretch of about a kilometer with good views of the fort at the right and a small plateau with a hut to the left. Once naval bases, Vijaydurg fort and Sindhudurg fort bear testimony to Maharashtra’s martial supremacy during Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's reign.

This is only one of the two forts of the Maratha kingdom, where Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj personally hoisted the saffron flag. The other fort is “Torana”. This impregnable fort has advantage due to its location. One such advantage is 40 km long Waghotan/Kharepatan Creek. The large size ships cannot enter the shallow water of this creek and hence Maratha warships were anchored in this creek. These ships were invisible from deep sea.

There is 200m long, subsea /underground man made tunnel from the fort to the Dhulap’s palatial house in the village. The fencing wall constructed at 8-10m deep below sea level, 300ft from the fort is another architectural wonder. The wall constructed with laterite stones was about 122 mtr long, 3 mtr high & 7 mtr in breadth. Majority of attacking ships hit with this wall and capsized as this wall is not visible above the sea level.

Approx 1.5 km from the fort in the Waghotan Creek is a naval dock. The maratha warships were built and repaired in this dock. The ships built in this dock were of the 500 tonnage capacity.

There are stone benches inside the Vijaydurg fort which are known as ‘Sahebache Ote’ in local language. The presence of ‘Helium’, one of the basic elements of Sun, was first detected from here on 18-08-1868, a solar eclipse day, by a French scientist Sir Lockyer.