Pallipuram Fort

Pallippuram Fort is a fort in Ernakulam district of Kerala, south India. It was built by the Portuguese in 1503 and is the oldest existing European fort in India. The Dutch captured the fort in 1661 and sold it to the State of Travancore in 1789. This fort is situated in the northern extremity of the Vypeen island. This fort is in a hexagonal shape and popularly known as ayikkotta or Alikotta.

Structure of the Pallipuram fort
The outpost is a hexagonal structure. The lowest floor inside the fort is raised to a height of five feet. The cellar inside the fort was used to store gunpowder. The gate and the door posts, and the lintels are finely dressed and arched. There is a square well of dimension 3’3”. Earlier, it was the source of fresh water.

There is an opening to the north which leads to the cellar. There is a circular slab stone, on which was installed a pillar on which the radiating wooden struts supporting the upper two floors must have rested.

Each face of the fort measures 32 ft long, 34 feet high, and the walls are six feet thick. Each face of the fort has three embrasures, one above the other. The central opening of the embrasures measures 2’ × 2$1⁄2$’. The fort could have mounted as many as guns commanding all quarters round it. There is an open space inside affording easy passage to the cellar.

The fort is constructed using laterite, chunam, and wood. The walls are thickly plastered using mortar. The door way in the central circular slab is made of granite. All the six sides of the fort are overgrown with vegetation