While in Mumbai, we visited Bandstand that was a little disappointing experience for me and if you are wondering why, check this . After roaming around Bandstand, we walked towards Taj Lands End and finally reached Castella De Aguada towards the end. It's just across the sea and Sea-Link looks awesome from this place. This Photo Journey shares more about Castella De Aguada and why it's so popular amongst locals and tourists visiting Mumbai.
It's also called at Bandra Fort. The Portuguese had established a base in this area during 1530s after defeating Bahadur Shah of Gujarat state of India. And they built various sea-forts along the western Indian coastline. Castella de Aguada was one such strategically located fort, overlooking the Mahim Bay to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west, the islands of Worli to the south and the town of Mahim to the south west.
During the Portuguese rule, it was armed with seven cannons and other smaller guns as defense.
Here is huge wall of Castella De Aguada from where you can enjoy awesome views of Sea Link and get photographs clicked. And in monsoons the views are even better with clouds in sky and everything cleaned up by drizzles.
Above photograph shows the open space just in front of the fort and if you would try to search the fort, you would be disappointed. There is hardly anything which remained and look like a fort. There are high walls from where you can see Sea-Link and observe sea waves. You can find vendors roaming around to sell snacks. Structure of Castella De Aguada has been renovated a decade back and now it doesn't look like old forts but some of the walls still look strong and have old charm. Are you wondering what is the significance of Castella De Aguada?
Bandra Fort Garden is very well maintained. Not sure if it seemed like that because of freshness of Monsoons or it's really handled well by authorities.
Lot of folks come here, spend some quality time with friends by looking at the waves. Some of them just cross the wall and sit on rocks around the wall. Just notice folks sitting on the rocks in photograph below.
Quick facts -
How to Reach Castella De Aguada - It's at walking distance from Shah Rukh Khan's house :). So if you are visiting Bandstand, just walk from there towards Taj Lands End and cross that.
Castella De Aguada Timings - I didn't find a way to close this but it seems castle is open from 6:30am to 7pm. There must be some entry gate which I missed.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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