Fort Dansborg, the second largest after Kronborg, spotlights the Danish legacy

Fort Dansborg, the second largest after Kronborg, spotlights the Danish legacy

A stunning white majestic gateway on the ancient defensive wall on King’s Street, sporting the Danish royal seal and coat of arms on its pediment, and the soothing sea breeze pull tourists to the ozone-rich shores of the Bay of Bengal at Tharangambadi. Here, the legacy of Danish stands tall.

Tharangambadi, which means the land of singing waves, was formerly called Tranquebar. This coastal town in the present-day Mayiladuthurai district was the seat of the Danish East India Company, which ruled the enclave for more than two centuries.

According to the information available at Tranquebar Maritime Museum, in 1618, Danish King Christian IV sent a few merchant and naval ships, under the command of Admiral Ove Gjedde, to establish a trading post in the Indian Ocean region.

The initial attempts to open a trading centre at Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) failed, but the Danish Admiral managed to get permission from Maharaja of Thanjavur Raghunatha Nayak for establishing a trading post on the Coromandel Coast.

In 1620, a piece of land at Tharangambadi was ceded to the Danish. This marked the first direct contact between Denmark and South Asia. Soon after acquiring the land, the Danish also got the right to administer and fortify Tranquebar for yearly tribune and built the massive Fort Dansborg, locally called the Danish Fort. It is the second largest Danish Fort in the world, next to Fort Kronborg in Denmark.

The citadel was built with bricks. The main door faces north. The two-storey trapezoidal fort has large walls and ramparts with rows of rooms such as warehouse, kitchen, poultry room, and quarters for soldiers.

The archival records in the museum mention that during the 225 years of Danish rule, thousands of Danish merchants settled at Tranquebar and carried out a flourishing trade with China and a few other countries. They never returned to Denmark; they died and were buried in the town.