Posted on: 11 September 2011

Bangalore Fort was originally built by Kempe Gowda a feudatory of the Vijaynagar Empire and the founder of Bangalore as a mud fort. It was converted into a stone fort by Haider Ali in 1761. It was a stronghold of Tipu Sultan that was captured by the army of the British East India Company led by Lord Cornwallis on 21 March 1791 during the Third Mysore War (1790–1792). Only the Delhi gate of the fort presently exists on Krishnarajendra Road bearing a marble plaque recording the spot where a breach in the fort wall delivered Bangalore Fort to the British. There also exists a wooden palace of Tipu sultan, and his armoury in the old fort area.

The Bangalore fort, ca. 1791, was described as follows:

Bangalore, like Madras, had a fort, with a pettah, or fortified town, outside it. This lay-out was a feature of almost all the cities or settlements in India, the fort providing a place of refuge for most of the inhabitants if the pettah was in danger of capture. The fort at Bangalore had a perimeter of about one mile; it was of solid masonry, surrounded by a wide ditch which was commanded from 26 towers placed at intervals along the ramparts. To its north lay the pettah, several miles in circumference and protected by an indifferent rampart, a deep belt of thorn and cactus, and a small ditch. Altogether Bangalore was not a place which invited attack.
—Sandes, Lt Col E.W.C. (1933) The Military Engineer In India, Vol 1

- Wiki


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A parichay to the Bangalore Fort By Meera Iyer This is the fort which houses a 16th century Ganesha temple, and where Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan held English prisoners in the 1780s. http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/249-fort-walk

Now almost totally lost.

Wish Bangalore spent same kind of efforts London does to keep its historic structures. Is there "National Register of Historic Places" in India ?

I have lots of pictures of old bangalore ..can give yu

Thank you Naresh ! That would be great !