Pratapgad Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Pratapgad rises to an altitude of about 1,080 metres on a wooded ridge of the Sahyadri range, some twenty kilometres from Mahabaleshwar, on the road to Mahad. Shivaji had it built from 1656, just after taking the Javli region, in order to watch over this forested basin, the banks of the Nira and the Koyna, and the Par pass that descends towards the Konkan. The fort is famous for the encounter of 10 November 1659, at the foot of its walls, between Shivaji and Afzal Khan, general of the Bijapur sultanate, which ended with the latter's death and the rout of his army: a founding victory for the young Maratha state. The plan combines an upper fort and a lower fort, protected by a double line of walls of varying heights and by bastions; the UNESCO management plan sees in it the first application of the defensive principle of the "maachi", a fortified terrace set below. The Tulja Bhavani temple, the tomb of Afzal Khan and a small museum complete the visit.