Bankot Fort

Bankot Fort, also called Himmatgad or Fort Victoria, stands on a hill by the sea at Bankot, 21 km from Shrivardhan and 47 km from Dapoli in Ratnagiri district, guarding the trade route up the Savitri River to Mahad. It is thought to appear in Ptolemy's geography as Mandagora, and Hiuen Tsang is said to have sailed from here in 640 AD. The Portuguese took it from Bijapur in 1548, Kanhoji Angre won it in 1700 and named it Himmatgad, and in 1755 it surrendered to the British, who called it Fort Victoria before handing it to the Peshwas.

The fort is built of laterite and surrounded by a moat cut into the rock, with two gates. A road now leads up to it from the village, and from Harihareshwar a ferry crosses the Savitri from Bagmandala to Bankot.