Visit to Bengaluru fort

I have been a resident of Bengaluru for the last 22 years. While I regularly travel to many locations, I rarely visit tourist places within the city. The glitter and glamour of the IT Industry have masked the historical aspects of Bengaluru, but the city does have many places of interest. One such place is the Bengaluru fort. I am sure many people will not be aware of its existence!!

We took the Metro train to reach KR Market station. A different world stared at us as we came out of the posh Metro station. The KR Market had improved a lot from my previous visit, but it was still chaotic and filthy (As per my standard). We walked for a couple of minutes to reach the fort.

Kempe Gowda, a vassal of the Vijayanagar Empire, built a mud fort in 1537. Hyder Ali replaced it with a stone fort later. British captured this fort in 1791 during the Anglo-Mysore war. They demolished most of this fort to construct roads and buildings. The board in front of this fort says, “The original fort was oval in plan, with round bastions and huge gateways at important places – Delhi Bagilu (Gate) and Yelahanka Bagilu on the north, Ulsur Bagilu at the east, Mysuru Bagilu in the south and Kengeri Bagilu in the east. It was surrounded by a dry moat.” Today, only the Delhi gate and remnants of the two bastions are standing.

The entry was free, and we had to provide our contact details in a ledger. The fort was neatly maintained. The entrance gate looked majestic, and the architecture had the touch of Hyder Ali. A small temple was present immediately after the gate. The walls and bastions formed the inner part of the fort.

We spent about 15 minutes in the fort before getting back to the madness of KR Market. Overall, it is a small fort but nicely maintained. The entry to the upper sections of this fort is restricted to the visitors.