Gobindgarh Fortਗੋਬਿੰਦਗੜ੍ਹ ਕਿਲ੍ਹਾ

Where is Gobindgarh Fort?

Gobindgarh Fort stands inside Amritsar, close to the Lohgarh Gate side of the old city, on land that once guarded the approach to the Golden Temple along the Grand Trunk Road. The fort covers about 43 acres in a square plan, with a perimeter of roughly 1,000 metres, and for most of its life it was closed to ordinary people: first a working fortress, then a British garrison, then an Indian Army base. Since 2017 it has been open to the public as a museum and cultural park, and it is now one of the main heritage stops in Amritsar alongside Jallianwala Bagh and the Golden Temple.

From a Bhangi mud fort to Ranjit Singh's stronghold

The first fort on this ground was raised in 1760 by Gujjar Singh Bhangi, a chief of the Bhangi Misl, and local people knew it simply as Bhangian da Killa, the fort of the Bhangis. It began as a mud fort, one of many small strongholds thrown up in the years when Sikh misls controlled the countryside around Amritsar. Its position mattered more than its size: whoever held it could watch the road into the city and shield the Harmandir Sahib from raiders.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh took the fort in 1805 and rebuilt it completely between 1805 and 1809. He renamed it Gobindgarh in honour of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the tenth Guru. The rebuilding followed French ideas of fortification, brought by the European officers in his service, and produced a far tougher structure: walls of brick and lime, 10 to 12 metres thick around a mud core, built with the thin Nanakshahi bricks of the period. Four great bastions carried 25 cannons, among them the famous Zamzama guns. The main entrance, Nalwa Gate, takes its name from the general Hari Singh Nalwa, and a second entrance, Keller Gate, opens at the rear. A brick-lined moat with ravelins, about five metres deep, ringed the walls.

The Toshakhana and the Koh-i-Noor

Inside the walls stood the Toshakhana, the treasury of the Sikh Empire. At its height it guarded the Koh-i-Noor diamond and held stores said to be enough for an army of 2,000 men. The fort was also a working arsenal: coins were minted here and artillery was produced within its walls. Its commandant, the qiladar, was Imam-ul-Din of the Faqir family, and he was succeeded in the post by Taj-ud-Din. In 1837 the fort hosted one of the grandest celebrations of the empire, the wedding of Prince Nau Nihal Singh, the Maharaja's grandson.

British barracks and the army years

The British captured Gobindgarh in 1849, after the fall of the Sikh Empire, and kept it as a military station until 1947. They changed its character: by 1859 the bastions had been roofed over to serve as barracks, a Darbar Hall was built in 1850 for use as a hospital, and the Bungalow was raised in 1864 on a circular Sikh plinth. A watch tower about 50 metres tall, completed in 1874, stood over the fort until the Indian Army demolished it after independence. The army held Gobindgarh until 2006, when it was finally handed over to the Punjab Government, ending more than two centuries of military use.

What can visitors see at Gobindgarh Fort today?

The restored fort opened to the public on 10 February 2017 and now works as a living museum of Punjab. The Sher-e-Punjab experience tells the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in a 7D show. The old Toshakhana is a coin museum, where a replica of the Koh-i-Noor recalls the treasure it once held, and the Bungalow houses a museum of ancient warfare. Around them are a live performance stage called Spirit of Punjab, Punjabi food at Ambarsari Zaika, a crafts market at the Haat Bazaar, and the evening Whispering Walls show, Kanda Boldiyan Ne, which projects the fort's own story onto its ramparts.

Planning a visit

Gobindgarh Fort sits within Amritsar city and is easy to combine with the Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh in a single day. Give the fort at least two hours, more if you plan to catch the evening show on the walls. The open grounds are large and shade is limited, so mornings and late afternoons are the comfortable times to walk the ramparts.