While wandering around the districts of Pune city, we get to see ground forts and many fortress in this districts. Along with these two, we get to see one more important monument that is Nagarkot (city fort). This monument, which once protected the entire village by taking it under its ramparts, has been completely neglected today. With the passage of time, most of the ramparts of fort have collapsed today and the stone and soil from these have been used by the locals to build their houses. The doors of these forts are still there today and these grand doors are seen as the face of the village today. We can see one such fort in Karegaon near Ranjangaon, Nagarkot, which has been destroyed and there are only a few remains. Karegaon is a village located near Ranjangaon in Shirur taluka of Pune district at a distance of 55 km from Pune. ... As the Mahaganapati at Ranjangaon is one of the eight Ganapati in Ashtavinayaka, there is good vehicular facility to reach here from Pune since it’s famous. The distance between Ranjangaon and Karegaon is 6 km and there is a good rickshaw facility to go there. While traveling on the Pune highway, when approaching Karegaon, village gate is visible from a distance on the inner side of the road. This place, known as “Ves”, is easily seen as the gateway to our Nagarkot. This door is built in two bastions and on its inner side there are stairs to go to the bastion. The earlier construction of door and bastion was made of stone and has been repaired with cement in recent times. Above the door there is a statue of the Maharaja and on the bastion there are statues of cannon and Maratha soldiers. Other remains of fort have been completely destroyed due to increasing urbanization & only this door remains. So our journey that started in the door ends in the door itself. 10 minutes is enough to see this part of Karegaon. As Nagarkot (city forts) is a neglected topic, the information or history of this fort is not available anywhere else.
© Suresh Nimbalkar