Fort St. Anthony of Simbor

Fort St. Anthony of Simbor, also called Fortim-do-Mar or Forte Pani Cola, survives as a modest ruin on an islet where the Sahil River meets the sea in the bay of Simbor, roughly 25 km east of Diu. It was one of the last forts the Portuguese built in India. In 1722 Luís de Melo Pereira, then governing Diu, sent a force against a post that the pirate leader Ramogi Varer had set up on the islet; after taking it and burning the boats, the Portuguese rebuilt it as their own stronghold.

A cistern supplied water to a garrison of 30 men, and a chapel to St Anthony of Padua was later added inside. Nearly half the garrison died in an attack in 1780, and by 1840 the fort was dilapidated. It formed part of the tiny Portuguese enclave of Simbor until India absorbed it in December 1961, and the authorities have marked it for restoration. It is not the same as Fortim do Mar at Diu.