Anjanvel Fort

Anjanvel Fort, also called Gopalgad, stands on a hill by the sea near Anjanvel village, 13 km from Guhagar in Ratnagiri district. It commanded the trade route along the Vashishti River and the busy medieval port of Dabhol. It is believed to have been built by a King Ramaraya and taken by the Adil Shahis in 1424. Shivaji captured it in 1660, built a dockyard and named it Gopalgad; it later passed to the Abyssinian general Khairiyat Khan, to Tulaji Angre in 1745 and finally to Colonel Kennedy in 1818.

Built of laterite, the rectangular fort covers about seven acres within walls 12 feet high and 8 feet thick, ringed by a dry moat. It is divided into three sections, and its outer walls once had 15 bastions with cannon. A mango orchard grows inside. A road now runs right up to the small western entrance.