Akola Fort

Akola Fort, also called Asadgad, is with Narnala and Akot one of the main forts of Akola district in the old Berar region. Its origins are disputed. A Marathi inscription on the Agarves gate says Govind Appaji built it, as Korbandh, to protect the nearby Raj Rajeshwar temple, but the other inscriptions on the fort say it was built or rebuilt in 1697 under Aurangzeb by his minister Asad Khan, after whom it was named. Arthur Wellesley camped here in 1803 before the Battle of Argaon, and the British dismantled the fortress around 1870; in 1910 its central hawakhana was serving as a school.

The fort is notably plain, with no decorative carving. Inscriptions survive on the Dahi Handa gate, dated 1697, on the Fateh Buruj bastion, naming Bahadur Shah I, and on the Eidgah, recording rebuilding finished by Khwaja Abdul Latif in 1698. Nearby stands the Raj Rajeshwar Mandir, described as Akola's oldest Shiva temple.