Red Fort (Delhi)
| Red Fort in Delhi लाल क़िला لال قلعہ |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| Exterior view of the Red Fort in Delhi |
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| National territory: |
 India
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (ii), (iii), (vi) |
| Reference No .: | 231 |
| UNESCO region : | Asia and Pacific |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 2007 (meeting 31.) |
The Red Fort ( Urdu لال قلعہ Lal Qila ) in the north Indian city of Delhi is a fortress and palace complex from the era of the Mughal Empire . It was built between 1639 and 1648 for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 . It got its name from the characteristic red color of the sandstone used for the fortress walls .
Position and extent
The Red Fort is located on the eastern edge of the old town of Delhi (Shahjahanabad), to the south is the fortress ruins Ferozabad . The fortress area extends along the former right bank of the Yamuna , which today, however, flows a few hundred meters further east. It takes almost one kilometer from north to south, and around 500 meters in the east-west extension. It was originally designed as a rectangle with an aspect ratio of 3: 4 with beveled corners. In fact, it juts out triangularly in the north, as otherwise the surrounding wall would have formed an acute angle with the old river bed of the Yamuna, which formed a small arch at this point. A massive wall encloses the area. The east, west and south sides of the wall are exactly aligned with the cardinal points.
history
Mughal Mughal Shah Jahan (r. 1627 to 1658/59) had the Red Fort built by the architects Hamid and Ahmad as an imperial residence in the newly founded capital Shahjahanabad, today's old town of Delhi. The foundation stone was laid on the 9th of Muharram in 1048 (May 23, 1638). Actual construction began a year later and was completed in 1648. Shah Jahan's successor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) left the two gates of the fortress at the beginning of his reign by outworks enhance and expanded the palace area around a mosque. In 1737 the armies of the Persian Nadir Shah conquered Delhi and plundered the Mughal residence. Among other things, the legendary peacock throne was stolen. After the third Battle of Panipat in 1761, Delhi with the Red Fort was conquered and sacked again, this time by an Afghan army under Ahmed Shah Durrani . After the suppression of the Indian uprising of 1857 and the deposition of the last Grand Mogul, Bahadur Shah II , the British army took over the fort in 1858 and destroyed some of the pavilions and gardens in order to be able to set up a garrison . All of the residence's furniture was destroyed or stolen. Later, parts of the complex and the gardens were restored under Lord Curzon ( viceroy from 1899 to 1905). On the occasion of his proclamation as Emperor of India on the Delhi Durbar in 1911, King George V resided with his wife Maria von Teck in the Red Fort. In 1947 the Indian army took over the fort, but withdrew from it in 2003. Today the Red Fort is one of the most visited attractions in India. On June 28, 2007, UNESCO added the entire fortress and palace complex to its list of World Heritage Sites worthy of protection.
architecture
Fortifications
The Red Fort is surrounded by a crenellated wall with a total length of 2.4 kilometers and a moat between 18 meters (on the river side) and 34 meters (on the city side). The trench originally drew water from the Yamuna, but is now dry. Semicircular bastions protrude from the fortress wall at regular intervals . The two entrances, the Lahore Gate in the west and the Delhi Gate in the south, are each secured by a rectangular forecourt. Each Vorwerk consists of a courtyard, which is accessible via a gate arranged at right angles to the fortress wall. The actual entrance gates to the interior of the fortress face the courtyard. They are three-story and are flanked by octagonal towers with roof pavilions (chattris) .
Public area
A vaulted bazaar street, the Chatta Chowk, leads from the Lahore gate in a west-east direction to the freestanding Naqqarkhana or Naubat Khana ("drum house"), a three-story, square gate made of red sandstone, the outer walls of which were originally partially gilded with flower tendrils were. Here guests of the emperor were received. On the gallery on the upper floor, musicians played for the Mughal emperor or to greet the guests. From Naqqarkhana , two further bazaar streets led north and south, of which only the southern section, which ends at the Delhi Gate, is preserved today. The northern bazaar, as a dead end, had no connection to the city outside the fortress and may therefore never have been completed.
A large lawn opens east of Naqqarkhana , in the place of which there was once the first walled courtyard of the fortress. Behind it stands the public audience hall (Diwan-i Am) on a terrace . Dodecagonal sandstone columns subdivide this one-story, open pavilion into nine by three bays , which are spanned by serrated arches. The original painting and gilding of the columns has not been preserved. In the past, curtains could be attached to the far overhanging eaves edge of the flat roof. In the east of the Diwan-i Am , a marble wall has been drawn in, against which the marble throne canopy of the former Mughal rulers is leaning. The wall behind the throne is decorated with depictions of birds and flowers made using the Pietra dura inlay technique.
Palace area
Along the eastern boundary of the Red Fort are the buildings formerly reserved for the imperial family, which also housed the imperial private apartments. The palaces are raised at the level of the upper end of the eastern fortress wall. The bathhouse (hammam) , the pearl mosque (Moti Masjid) , the private audience hall (Diwan-i Khas) , the palaces Khas Mahal , Rang Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal and a number of smaller pavilions are still preserved (from north to south) . Another palace building called Chhoti Baithak existed between the Rang Mahal and the Mumtaz Mahal , but it did not survive the repeated looting and destruction of Delhi. A marble watercourse, called Nahr-i Bihisht ("Channel of Paradise"), connects the palaces with one another. The water was pumped up in the northeast corner tower of the Red Fort.
The bathhouse is made entirely of white marble and has three magnificent, vaulted bath rooms inside. The walls and floors are decorated with inlays.
To the west of the bathhouse is the small pearl mosque (Moti Masjid) , which Aurangzeb had built from white marble in 1662. Their structure is typical of the Indian mosque style of the Mughal period: three onion-shaped domes rise above the prayer hall, which faces east towards Mecca , and the middle one towers above the other two. A lotus flower-shaped stucco top and soaring metal spikes complete the domes. A narrow courtyard opens up in front of the prayer hall. From the outside only the strongly vaulted domes can be seen, since the mosque and its courtyard are enclosed by a high walled area.
The private audience hall (Diwan-i Khas) south of the bathhouse is like the Diwan-i Am a rectangular, one-story columned hall with a flat roof, but consists entirely of white marble. The massive columns appear heavier than the graceful sandstone pillars of the Diwan-i Am ; the precious inlays, gilding and paintings on the pillars and arches as well as the chattris on the corners of the flat roof compensate for the clumsy impression. An outwardly open, jagged gallery surrounds a rectangular room in the middle of the hall. Here the Mughal rulers received high-ranking personalities for private audiences. The golden peacock throne , which the Persian ruler Nadir Shah stole from Delhi in 1739 , used to stand on a pedestal in the audience room . Today it is considered lost.
To the south of the Diwan-i Khas is the rather inconspicuous Khas Mahal ("private palace"). The one-story marble building housed the Mughal emperor's private apartments. An elongated veranda opens to the south and served as living space. Behind it are three bedrooms. The eastern wall of the Khas Mahal borders a low, octagonal tower of the eastern boundary wall, from which the emperor showed himself to the people every morning. The tower is now surrounded by a balcony that was only added in the 19th century.
The Khas Mahal is followed in a southerly direction by the Rang Mahal ("Palace of Colors"), where the emperor's wives resided. Such women's chambers were called Zenana ; The palace got its proper name from the painting of the interior, which has only been preserved in remnants. The Rang Mahal consists of an elongated, one-story hall, the front facade of which is structured by five pointed arches. Two of the six rooms have walls and ceilings with shards of mirrors; they are therefore also referred to as Shish Mahal ("Palace of Mirrors").
The southernmost of the palace complexes of the Red Fort is the Mumtaz Mahal ("Palace of Jewels"). It is largely made of marble and comprises six rooms that were originally painted and also belonged to the Zenana . Today it houses an archaeological museum.
literature
- Anisha Shekhar Mukherji: The Red Fort of Shahjahanabad. Oxford University Press, USA, 2003, ISBN 0-19-565775-6 .
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Archaeological Survey of India: World Heritage Site - Red Fort, Delhi (English)
- ArchNet.org: Red Fort Complex (English)
- Search for Red Fort (Delhi) in the German Digital Library
- Search for Red Fort Delhi in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Andreas Volwahsen: Islamic India. (Series Architektur der Welt ) Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1994, p. 138.
- ^ Andreas Volwahsen: Islamic India. (= Architecture of the World ) Benedikt Taschen, Cologne 1994, p. 139.
Cultural heritage: Ajanta Rock Temple (1983) | Ellora Cave Temple (1983) | Red Fort in Agra (1983) | Taj Mahal (1983) | Konarak Sun Temple (1984) | Mahabalipuram Temple District (1984) | Churches and Monasteries of Goa (1986) | Khajuraho Temple District (1986) | Temple District of Hampi (1986) | Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri (1986) | Pattadakal Temple Complex (1987) | Elephanta Caves (1987) | Great Temples of the Chola Dynasty (1987) | Buddhist shrine near Sanchi (1989) | Humayun's Mausoleum (1993) | Qutb Complex (1993) | Mountain Railways in India (1999) | Mahabodhi Temple of Bodhgaya (2002) | Bhimbetka Caves (2003) | Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (2004) | Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004) | Red Fort in Delhi (2007) | The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur (2010) | Mountain Fortresses of Rajasthan (2013) | Rani Ki Vav (2014) | The architectural work of Le Corbusier : Capitol Complex in Chandigarh (2016) | Nalanda Mahavihara Archaeological Site (2016) | Old City of Ahmedabad (2017) | Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles in Mumbai (2018) | Old City of Jaipur (2019)
Natural heritage: Kaziranga National Park (1985) | Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985) | Keoladeo National Park (1985) | Sundarbans National Park (1987) | Nanda Devi National Park and Valley of Flowers National Park (1988) | Western Ghats (2012) | Great Himalaya National Park (2014)
Cultural / natural heritage: Kangchenjunga National Park (2016)
Coordinates: 28 ° 39 ′ 21 ″ N , 77 ° 14 ′ 25 ″ E