Rajgad Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Perched at an altitude of about 1,390 m in the Sahyadri range, south-west of Pune, Rajgad, the "king of forts", served for more than two decades as Shivaji's capital before Raigad. The mountain, formerly called Murumbdev, rises around a summit citadel, the Bale Killa, with three vast fortified plateaus known as machis. The Padmavati Machi, the largest, housed both dwellings and military facilities; it contains the Padmavati temple and the memorial to Saibai, Shivaji's first wife. The Suvela Machi to the east and the Sanjivani Machi to the west, about 2.5 km long and defended by a double wall and nineteen bastions, illustrate a military architecture adapted to the terrain. Several gates — Pali, Chor, Alu and the Mahadarwaja of the Bale Killa — controlled the approaches. It was at Rajgad that Rajaram was born in 1670. Protected by the Archaeology Department of Maharashtra, the fort has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage property "Maratha Military Landscapes" since 2025. It can only be visited at the end of a trek.