Fort Dansborg

Fort Dansborg
Part of Tamil Nadu
Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), Tamil Nadu, India
Fort Dansborg at Tranquebar, now Tharangambadi
Fort Dansborg
Coordinates	11°02′N 79°50′E / 11.03°N 79.84°E / 11.03; 79.84
Type	Forts
Site information
Controlled by	State Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu
Site history
Built	1620
Built by	Danish

Fort Dansborg (Danish: Dansborg), locally called Danish Fort (Tamil: டேனியக் கோட்டை, romanized: Ṭēṉiyak kōṭṭai), is a Danish fort located in the shores of Bay of Bengal in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Fort Dansborg was built in the land ceded by Thanjavur king Ragunatha Nayak in an agreement with Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde in 1620 and acted as the base for Danish settlement in the region during the early 17th century. The fort is the second largest Danish fort after Kronborg. The fort was sold to the British in 1845 and along with Tranquebar, the fort lost its significance as the town was not an active trading post for the British. After India's independence in 1947, the fort was used as an inspection bungalow by the state government until 1978 when its archaeology department took control of the fort. The fort is now used as a museum where the major artifacts of the fort and the Danish empire are displayed.

The fort was renovated twice in modern times, by the Tranquebar Association with the help of the Danish royal family and the state's archaeology department in 2001 and by the state's tourism department in 2011.