Fort of São Tiago of Banastarim

This Portuguese-era fort, also called Fort St. James or Benastari Castle, lies on the right bank of the Cumbarjua Canal at the eastern tip of Old Goa. Local rulers first fortified the pass here, which Afonso de Albuquerque regarded as the key to Goa. He captured the fort on 2 April 1512, and when a Bijapur army under Fulad Khan seized it later that year in his absence, Albuquerque took it back on his return from Cochin.

The Portuguese then rebuilt it, keeping parts of the older works. Under the master builder Tomás Fernandes a four-storey tower with corner turrets, a surrounding barbican and an inner well was finished in late 1513. An instruction of 1774 listed sixteen cannon here, including one huge gun that was shipped to the Lisbon arsenal as a trophy in 1840.