The oldest fort on sindhudurg coast constructed in the regime of the Raja Bhoj of shilahar dynasty in 1205. The fort was earlier known as “Gheria” as it is situated in the village “Girye”. Shivaji Maharaj won this fort from Adilshah of Bijapur in 1653 & renamed it as “Vijaydurg” as the then Hindu solar ear’s name was “Vijay”. Vijay means victory.
The earlier fort encompassed area of 5 acres & was surrounded by sea on all the 4 sides. Over the years the eastern trench was reclaimed and the road was constructed theron. Presently the area of the fort is about 17 acres & is surrounded by Arabian sea on its three sides. Chhatrapati Shivaji extended the areas of fort by constructing three fort walls on the eastern side. These three fortifications are of 36 m. height & he also constructed 20 bastions of the fort wall.
This is only one of the two forts of the two forts of the Maratha kingdom, where king shivaji personally hoisted the saffron flag. The other fort is “Torana”. This fort was also known as “Eastern Gibraltar” as this fort was impregnable for a long time like the fort “Gibraltar” in Europe. This impregnable fort has some locational advantages. One such advantage is 40 km long waghotan / kharepaten creek. These big ships can’t enter the shallow water of this creek & hence Maratha warships were anchored in this creek. These ships were invisible from deep sea.
The Architectural Marvel :– A] The 200 m long undersea / under land tunnel from the fort to the Dunlap’s palatial house in the village is man-made. The roof of the tunnel has been pinched to protect it from land-slides & it is also well ventilated. Now the tunnel is partially blocked. Using latest technology if this tunnel is cleared it will be a major tourist attraction & will be of great help for architectural student / history lovers. B] The fencing compound wall constructed at 8-10m depth undersea, 300Ft from the fort is another architectural wonder. The wall constructed with laterite stones is 122 mtr long, 3 mtr high & 7 mtr in breadth. Majority of attacking ships met their watery grave after colliding on this wall as this wall is not visible above the sea level.
Discovery of Helium :– On 18-08-1868, a solar eclipse day a French scientist Johnson took the spectrometer readings from this fort. The stone benches he used for talking the readings are known as “ saheb’s kattas” in local language. These spectrometer readings helped in detecting the presence of “ Helium”, one of the basic elements on sun.
The navel dock :- 1.5 km from the fort in the waghotan creek, a naval dock was constructed by carving the rocks. This is where the Maratha worships were built & repaired. This ships built here were of the 400-500
tonnage capacity. This 109 ̽ 70 mt dock faces the north side & is on of the major landmark of maratha naval architecture.