Dongri Fort

Dongri Fort, locally called Janjire Dharavi Fort, crowns a hill in the Dongri area of Mumbai. The Portuguese built it around 1701 after taking Vasai, as one link in their chain of coastal defences guarding the approach. It changed hands repeatedly in the 1730s; Chimaji Appa first took it in 1737 during the campaign against Vasai, and it passed for good to the Marathas in 1739.

Since then local people and the church have looked after it, and it has been repaired once. Each year in October the fort hosts the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, drawing worshippers from distant villages. The top gives a full circle of views: the Arabian Sea to the west, Vasai Fort to the north, the forests of Sanjay Gandhi National Park eastward, and the Essel World amusement park southward.