Fort Aguada, Portuguese fort in North Goa district, India
Fort Aguada is a Portuguese fortification in North Goa district that sits on a promontory where the Mandovi River meets the Arabian Sea. The complex consists of an upper section with a lighthouse and bastions and a lower harbor area with defensive walls and cisterns.
The Portuguese built this defensive structure between 1609 and 1612 to protect their colony from Dutch attacks. The lighthouse was added in 1864 and served as a navigation aid along the coast until 1976.
The name comes from the Portuguese word for water, as ships stopped here to refill their supplies. Today visitors notice the cisterns and red laterite walls that spread across the green grounds.
Visitors can walk through the upper fortifications and look out over the bay and sea from there. The lower harbor section is partly accessible, though some parts remain closed or under restoration work.
An underground water reservoir still collects rainwater today, originally enough for hundreds of soldiers and ship crews. The system channeled the water through filtered passages to keep it clean.
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