Kozhikode DTPC to digitally recreate Portuguese fort at Chaliyam

The Kozhikode District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) is planning to digitally recreate the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam, which was destroyed by the Zamorin’s army in the 16th century.

According to DTPC officials, augmented reality and 3D modelling technologies will be used to regenerate the fort before the viewers at the Chaliyam beach. Historical facts about the fort will be recreated via a walk-through experience and entertainment videos. They claim that the visitors and history enthusiasts will get to know the importance of the fort through this.

The Chaliyam fort has a special place in the history of the erstwhile Calicut under the Zamorins. The Portuguese had built a fort at the mouth of Beypore river there around 1530, reportedly with the help of local chieftains who were opposed to the Calicut kingdom. It was constructed at a strategic spot to corner the Zamorin as the structure was just around 10 km away from then Calicut city. The Zamorin’s attack on the fort in 1571 followed his tie-ups with Bijapur Sultan Adil Shah and the Nizam Shah of Ahmad Nagar for a “joint enterprise against the Portuguese in the west coast,” says K.V. Krishna Ayyar in his book Zamorins of Calicut.

It was agreed that “Adil Shah should attack Goa and Nizam Shah should march on Chaul and the Zamorin should proceed against Chaliyam,” Ayyar writes, quoting also from Zainuddin Makhdoom’s book Thuhfathul Mujahideen. The Zamorin’s army consisting of Nairs and Muslims bombarded the fort and blocked the Portuguese reinforcement. The supplies sent by the Portuguese allies in Cochin and Cannanore too were stopped. Ayyar writes that the Portuguese were “compelled to devour dogs”. Soon after, the Portuguese captain surrendered. The Zamorin demolished the fort entirely “leaving not one stone upon another”, he writes. The Portuguese efforts to control Malabar ended subsequently.

The Calicut king later reconstructed the Mishkal Mosque at Kuttichira, which was earlier torched by the Portuguese, with the wooden planks taken away from the destroyed Chaliyam fort.

A senior DTPC official told The Hindu on Thursday (March 6) that the project was in its initial stages of preparation. Individuals, companies and agencies had been invited to sponsor the initiative.