Fort Aguada

About this place

Fort Aguada is a 17th-century Portuguese fort, built in 1612 together with a lighthouse, standing on Sinquerim Beach in Goa and overlooking the Arabian Sea, south of Candolim and about 6 km west of Panaji in a straight line. It is a protected Monument of National Importance. The fort was built to defend shipping and the area around it and was a reference point for vessels arriving from Europe. A freshwater spring inside supplied passing ships, which gave the fort its name, aguada meaning «watery» in Portuguese, and it could store more than two million gallons of water. It has an upper part with a moat, an underground water chamber, the lighthouse and bastions, and a lower part that served as a safe berth for ships. The lighthouse, put up in 1864, is among the oldest in Asia. The fort's dark walls of red laterite stone run across a headland above the sea, around a wide courtyard and a white cylindrical lighthouse, with views from the ramparts over the Arabian Sea and the mouth of the Mandovi River. Visitors walk the ramparts and courtyard and watch the sea at sunset. The site is exposed, so morning or late afternoon is best.