Fort William description and photos - India: Kolkata (Topic)

Fort William description and photos - India: Kolkata. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Fort William.

Photo and description

On the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, one of the main tributaries of the Ganges, in Calcutta, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, there is one of the main attractions of the city - Fort William. It was built at the very beginning of the period of British rule in India, and is named after the English king William (William) III. Directly in front of it is the largest public park in Kolkata - Maidan.

Officially, there are two Fort William - the old and the new. The old fortress was built in 1696 by the British East India Company under the leadership of John Goldmbourgh to strengthen European power in the area. Then the South-East Bastion and the wall surrounding it were created. Later, in 1701, John Beard built the Northeast Bastion, and in 1702 he began construction of the Government House (House of Administration) in the very center of the fortress - a large two-story building. And he completed it only in 1706. It was in this building that the infamous "black hole" was located - a small basement in which more than a hundred British soldiers were tortured in 1756 when the fortress was captured by the troops of the nawab (ruler) of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah. At the same time, the fort was renamed Alinagar. But already in 1758, after the Battle of Plessis, Robert Clive returned Fort William to the British. In 1781, he began to reconstruct the fortress and build a "new" fort, as a result of which the area occupied by him increased to 70.9 hectares.

Today the territory of the new fort belongs to the Indian army - it houses the headquarters Eastern Command, and the fortress itself is capable of accommodating up to 10 thousand soldiers. The "new" Fort William is heavily guarded and civilians are not allowed to enter.

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Topic: Fort William description and photos - India: Kolkata.