Silhouetted against the western sky the rounded bastions of the Bassein fort dominate the scene, while the ruined slender towers of the the Matriz and the Dominican Church still stand sentinel over the crumbling remains of the Portuguese empire in this part of the western coast. Inside the fort one enters a world haunted by the ghosts of dead fidalgos, knights with their own coat of arms, who lie buried in the Franciscan church. The mighty land gate with its pointed iron spikes which yielded to the battering rams of Chimaji Appa lies broken and rusted. The pillared arches in the monastic cloister still make a pretty picture of Romanesque architecture, but the roofs have blown off under the assaults of storms. Spiral stone staircases still lead half way up the belfry towers, but their summits have fallen and the bells have been carried away by conquerers. The huge hulk of the Jesuit Bom Jesu Church with its magnificent facade, thick wall sand vast interior give some idea of the vast congregation that must have prayed there, but the roof is a temporary one, put up for the annual mass on the feast of St. Gonsalo Garcia. Where once stood the noble two storeyed villas of the four hundred Portuguese families, the jungle has taken over and all that remains is broken walls, from which have sprouted huge trees whose roots clutch at the foundations. The Camara-Council building still stands, another piece of beautiful architecture still stands, but roofless and across the street is the Shiva temple built by Chimaji. In the middle of the walled fortress stands the ancient citadel built by the Portuguese after they had razed the older Muslim fort of Bahadur Shah who they had defeated and with whom they had signed the Treaty of Bassein in 1533. The governor's palace lay to the North of the octagonal shaped structure. The gateway is another impressive piece of architecture, and it was noted by Pope John Paul 11 when he visited last year. A stone inscription, still legible, reads : Constructed by Captain Garcia de Sa, by the order of Gov Nunho da Cunha, 1536. The fort was named for St. Sebastian. Portugal controlled sizable territory that included Salcette Island, and the mainland up to Thana, Uran and Kalyan. Bassein rose as an emporium of trade and as a prominent ship building centre of the West Coast. The Inquisition was never established in Bassein. The Jesuit college in the fort was a a powerhouse of activity. Also present were Franciscans. Bassein fell to Peshwa Baji Rao in 1939 and was renamed Bajiraopur. It was ceded to the English in 1818.
