FORT MORRO DE CHAUL, KORLAI

Korlai Fort (also called Morro or Castle Curlew) is a Portuguese fortification in the town of Korlai, Maharashtra, India. It was built on an island (Morro de Chaul) which guards the way to the Revdanda Creek. It was meant as a companion to the fort at Chaul. At this strategic position the Portuguese could use it to defend their province which stretched from Korlai to Bassein. Vestiges of the Portuguese occupation are manifested in the distinct dialect of the Korlai villages inhabitants which is a Portuguese Creole called Kristi.

 IMAGE COLLECTION

Tarun Chandel, 2011 (Photoblog)

Pawar Pradeep, 2010 (YouTube)

Vivek Nadagouda, 2010 (Panoramio)

Prakash Manjrekar, 2009 (Panoramio)

Darima, 2007 (Wikimedia Commons)

TrekShitiz, 2001 (trekshitiz.com)

 

 

More pictures...

(Google Images)

 SOURCES OF INFORMATION

A Fortaleza do Morro de Chaul, atualmente conhecida como Fortaleza de Korlai, localiza-se no Morro de Chaul, na atual povoação de Korlai, no estado de Maharashtra, na Índia. Foi erguido por forças portuguesas no início do século XVI para defesa da embocadura do rio Kundalika, como complemento à defesa proporcionada pela Fortaleza de Chaul. Vestígios da presença portuguesa na região tem sido estudados desde a década de 1970 num dialeto local, de base indo-portuguesa, denominado de "Kristi". More...

This fort was built in 1521 by the Portuguese with the permission of the Ahmednagar sultanate. In 1521, taking advantage of the confusion in the aftermath of the death of the Burhan Nizam the Portuguese tried to take over the fort. However the sultan retaliated and sent some of his best men to reclaim the fort. Subsequently a truce was reached in which the Ahmednagar sultanate occupied the island and no further fortification of the island took place. Only a wooden cross remained on the island as a sign of its former rulers. However in 1594, Abranches, a Portuguese captain with 1,500 soldiers and 1,500 natives took possession of the fort. The besieged soldiers of the Sultanate tried to block their way by putting a dead elephant at the main gate and a dead horse at the inner gate. But in the end they had to surrender. The Portuguese won the fort but not having enough men to stand guard there chose to destroy it leaving only the central tower and a battery intact. More...

Korlai - The Lesser Known Portuguese Enclave on Konkan Coast. More...

Celestine proudly stands framed in the blue doorway at Korlai, a village just south of Alibaug, her song has been heard and her picture seen around the world thanks to a newspaper article now posted on World Wide Web. For Celestine and many of her generation have a unique cultural trait: they speak a language that is a mixture of Portuguese and Marathi. The language goes by the name of Naw Ling (our language) or Kristi. They were earlier referred to as firangees but they largely refer to themselves as Indian-Portuguese. The community or rather the Creole that they speak is now a subject of academic research. More...

‘‘Akkiwei!’’ Father Vincent D’Mello yells at the noisy children playing in the courtyard of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Korlai village, beckoning them from his first floor house. It’s one of the few Portuguese terms the priest understands and uses to communicate with the 250-plus Christian families living in the area. The Portuguese may have fled to Goa in 1740, but a slice of their legacy survives in a tiny village on the Konkan coast, 135 kms from Mumbai, in the form of a language which dates back to the 1500s—Creole Portuguese. More...