The Fort of Our Lady of the Conception, also known as the Portuguese Castle, is a red stone fortress on

Hormuz Island Hormuz Island (; ), also spelled Hormoz, Ormoz, Ormuz or Ormus, is an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf. Geography Hormuz Island has an area of . Located in the Strait of Hormuz, off the Iranian coast, the island is part of Hormozgan Provin ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is one of the last surviving monuments of Portuguese

colonial rule Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an imperialist project, colonialism can also take ...

in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. Ormuz (or Hormuz) was an important maritime city and a small kingdom near the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The original site of the city was on the north shore of the Gulf, about 30 miles east of the current

Bandar Abbas Bandar Abbas (, ) is a city in the Central District of Bandar Abbas County, Hormozgan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Bandar Abbas is a port on the southern coast of the country, on the Persian ...

. Around 1300, apparently in response to attacks from the Tartars, it moved to the small island of Gerun, which can be identified as the Organa of Nearcho, about 12 miles west and 5 miles from the coast. Constructed on reddish stone on a rocky promontory at the far north of the island, the castle was originally cut off from the rest of the island by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

, traces of which still remain. Although most of the roof caved in long ago, much of the lower part of the very substantial outer walls is intact, with the remains lying on different levels of the site.

History

The building of the castle was ordered by Portuguese commander

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

in 1507, when his forces seized the island for a short time, being then named "Fort of Our Lady of Victory" (''Forte de Nossa Senhora da Vitória''). Engaging his men of all ranks in the building works, Albuquerque faced a revolt and had to retreat. He came back and reconquered the island in 1515, when he completed and renamed the fort. The

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

Shah,

Abbas the Great Abbas I (; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the fifth Safavid Iran, Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Mohammad Khodabanda, Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered ...

(1587–1629), wanted to end Portuguese rule in the south and eventually managed to convince the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

to allow its ships to cooperate with his land forces to seize the island from the Portuguese in 1622.

Other Portuguese castles

A number of other Portuguese castles are found in the

islands, including the castle in

Qeshm Qeshm (Persian language: قشم) is an arrow-shaped Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz of the Persian Gulf (), measuring roughly 1,500 square kilometres (576 square miles) in surface area. Separated from the Iranian mainland by the Claren ...

. During the

Habsburg dynasty The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

(1581–1640), the Portuguese built a fortress in

Dibba Al-Hisn Dibba Al-Hisn (, ''white Dibba'') is a pene-exclave of the emirate of Al-Sharjah, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. It is bordered by the Gulf of Oman from the East, Dibba Al-Baya (a province of Oman in Musandam) from the North, and Dibb ...

and a wall around the city. In August 1648, the Arabs besieged

Muscat, Oman Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

, and on 31 October 1648 a treaty was signed between the two opponents. The terms were as follows: the Portuguese should build the fortress of Kuriyat, Dibba Al-Hisn and Matrah (Oman).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Of Our Lady Of The Conception 16th-century fortifications Castles in Iran Architecture in Iran Portuguese forts Hormuz Island Portuguese Empire Buildings and structures in Hormozgan province National works of Iran Portuguese colonial architecture in Iran Our Lady

History

Other Portuguese castles

See also

References