Bassein fort - History in a nutshell

The Bassein fort popularly known as vasai fort is one of the few heritage structures that are still standing or rather surviving today.The fort was build by the portuguese who conquered vasai in 1537 from the sultan of gujarat.Initially a small fort was built by the sultan of gujarat.The portuguese conquered it and built a bigger fort which is seen today.
The portuguese ruled from 1537 A.D to 1739 A.D.

The fort of Bassein is built in the form of an irregular decagon.The length of the walls surrounding the fort are one and a half mile long.At each of the ten corners of the fort there were four-sided bastions.The area of the city enclosed within the fort is about 1 square km.

The Bassein came into the hands of the portuguese who settled here in large numbers and enriched by trade and agriculture, built themselves stately palaces and charming villas.So great indeed was the prosperity of Bassein,so abundant the wealth of its inhabitants and so lavish the display of costly dresses and splendid equipages that in common parlance the city was known as "Dom BaCaim" or "Lord Bassein".
There are seven churches in the fort.Some portuguese women donated generously for building churches outside the fort .Hence many churches were built outside the fort within a span of 150 years.They include St. Thomas church-sandor,O.L of Grace-papdy,Holy Cross-nirmal,O.L of Remedies-remedy..etc
The fort was eventually captured by the veer Chimaji appa who was the commander of the peshwas.The british later took charge of the fort .As the british called vasai as bassein , the fort came to be popularly known as the bassein fort.
Due to lack of proper maintainence the fort stands in ruins .A part of fort inside had crumbled down during an eathquake.

There are great stories told about how the fort stood tall to a battery of Maratha attack. Kanhoji Angre was one of the commanders who led the campaign. About 12,000 soldiers were fighting the battle from the Maratha side. The fort was well equipped with guns placed on the bastions. The Portuguese were not to keen in defending this fort as the high command from Goa had refused any help in the form of artillery and infantry. After constantly bombarding the fort for a long time , the Maratha finally managed to break the wall and gained entry inside the fort. Once within the fort , the remainder of the Portuguese army surrendered without any resistance. The treaty was then signed between the Peshwas and the Portuguese which granted Marathas the possession of vasai. The marathas renamed vasai as Bajipur in honour of the great Peshwa Bajirao. The name however was less prevalent and Vasai was more popularly used.

The land which came under the control of the marathas was then distributed amongst the families of royal stature in Pune. Many of these people then migrated from Pune to Vasai. They build their houses which were quite big (some of them still stand today).

The Portuguese were not interested in the growth of the people and hence they did not introduce any reforms for education nor did they provide for any infrastructure. They only promoted the spread of Christianity. The same was the case with the Marathas. Once they acquired possession of vasai , they build some temples within the fort and dedicated them to hindu deities. However the aspect of development was ignored in this period as well. Also, this period (1739 - 1802) was witnessing a change of power and also the events like
3rd Battle of Panipat , there was nothing done for the people.
Eventually, vasai was ceded to the British with the signing of the treaty of Bassein in 1802.

Fact Courtesy:: E. P Coelho's book about the history of Bassein Fort.