Erected by the local rulers, this fort was
conquered by the
Viceroy of Portuguese India Afonso de Albuquerque on 2 April 1512. Occupied by the
Portuguese forces, it was named as Fortaleza de São Tiago (the Fortress of
St James). In 1512, knowing that de Albuquerque was not in Goa, the minister of the young
Sultan of Bijapur sent an army against Goa, under the command of
Fulad Khan whom the Portuguese called Pulatecao. This general invaded the island of Goa, and established himself in the fortress of Benastarim. The fort was later recaptured by a force led by Albuquerque on his return to Goa from
Cochin. In the eighteenth century, under the instructions of
Jose I of Portugal, to the Governor and Captain-General of the State of India (
Estado da India) in 1774, the
Marquis of Pombal said: "There are in the fortress of S. Thiago sixteen [cannon] pieces, and one of them is a cannon of an unusual dimension." Also with regards to this piece of artillery, the Secretary-General of the State of India (
Estado da India), Cláudio Lagrange Monteiro de Barbuda, in the nineteenth century, said: : "But this cannon of not such as unusual dimension was still ready to shoot in 1839, atop the remains of a bulwark of this fortress, probably built by the Moors, as the Instructions [of 1774] mention, and that the
Baron of Candal ordered it to be collected for the arsenal [of Lisboa], in order for it to be shown as a trophy in that
arsenal, which took place in 1840. It is truly a masonry feat; the length of sixteen feet [] and three and a half and fourteen inches [] gauge lines made out of iron, and bars one-inch wide [3 cm] properly reinforced. Some writers name it the
Mourisca, perhaps because it is the work of
Moors." (MENDES, 1989: 167). Albuquerque considered the Benasterim (Banastarim) Pass, where the predecessors to the Portuguese had built a fort, to be "the key to Goa". : The Portuguese thus built a new structure, integrating parts of the pre-Portuguese fortification. The work was overseen by the master
Tomás Fernandes: an imposing tower was built with a
barbican around it and a well inside. It was finished in late 1513; Alfonso de Albuquerque described it as being a very large tower "with
bartizans in each corner, well-wrought of masonry and very handsome stone. The tower is four storeys high and can be seen from the walls of Goa; an attached tower was on the first level over the riverside, made of wood on pillars and covered like a terrace". == Bibliography ==