Bengaluru Fort

The story of Bengaluru Fort

What you’re standing by now is Bengaluru Fort, but the part most people notice today is the Delhi Gate, one of the few surviving pieces of the city’s 18th-century fort. The fort began in 1537 as a mud fort built by Kempe Gowda I, and later it was rebuilt in stone by King Hyder Ali in 1761 and further improved by King Tipu Sultan in the late 18th century. So this place carries several layers of Bengaluru’s early history in one site.

The fort’s origin was strategic. It was built to help protect Bengaluru, and later writers describe it as an oval fort in the centre of the city near KR Market. It was also part of the growth of the old Pete area established around it. One account says the mud fort was enlarged during Chikkadeva Raya Wodeyar’s rule between 1673 AD and 1704 AD, which shows that the fort was not a single moment of construction but a place that was repeatedly adapted.

You can still picture the military role it played. The fort was damaged during an Anglo-Mysore war in 1791, and the British East India Company army, led by Lord Cornwallis, captured it on 21 March 1791 during the siege of Bangalore in the Third Mysore War (1790–1792). At that time it was a stronghold for King Tipu Sultan. Another account describes the original fort as reinforced with heavy granite stones, broad ramparts with bastions, a faussebraye, five cavaliers, a glacis, a deep moat and a covered way without palisades. It also mentions French influences, including banquettes and embrasure openings. Those are the kinds of details a visitor can imagine even if only a fragment survives today.

The old fort had two gates, the Mysore Gate in the south and a north-facing Delhi Gate. The Delhi Gate is all that remains of the fort today, so if you want the clearest physical link to the original complex, that is the feature to look for. A British officer who passed through in 1809 described the fort as originally shaped much like an egg, with a high stone rampart and deep ditch. That gives you a sense of the form that once occupied this part of the city.

There is also a separate but closely connected story inside the fort: the Fort Church, Bangalore, stood within Bangalore Fort. It was built in 1808 for the use of British troops posted in the fort, and early records refer to it as the Drummer’s Chapel. It was the first protestant church to be raised in Bangalore. The church was modest, unlike other churches in Bangalore of the period. It resembled a barrack, with a tiled roof supported by beams, and was even called the Little Church. It was no longer used by 1836, and the building was later used by the Madras Army for other purposes. It was eventually demolished to make place for Vani Vilas Hospital. Some items were reused in St. Luke’s Church, Chamrajpet, including a church bell bearing the inscription Madras Mint 1868.

For practical purposes, the fort area is open Monday through Sunday from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. If you’re looking for the most concrete remnant, walk toward the gate and study the stonework closely; that surviving entrance is the best physical reminder of a fort that once had moats, ramparts, and multiple gates, and that later even held one of the earliest Protestant church buildings in the city.