Red Fort historical timeline

The Red Fort began as an imperial residence and became a military enclosure, a political courtroom and a national ceremonial stage. Its surviving pavilions sit within large gaps created after 1857, so absence is one of the main things a visitor has to read.

Chronology

1. 1546 Islam Shah Suri builds Salimgarh Fort beside the Yamuna. Its walls and later railway division remain immediately north of the Mughal palace.
2. 1638 Shah Jahan begins the palace-fort for Shahjahanabad. The river edge, city wall and new ceremonial axis determine the enclosure visitors enter today.
3. 1648 The court occupies the completed capital. Lahore Gate, Chhatta Chowk, the audience halls and the pavilion line establish the surviving visitor sequence.
4. 1739 Nader Shah sacks Delhi and removes imperial treasures. The Peacock Throne no longer stands in the Diwan-i-Khas where court ritual once centred.
5. 1857 British forces seize the fort after the uprising, try Bahadur Shah Zafar and convert much of the palace to barracks. Cleared courts and colonial buildings still interrupt the Mughal plan.
6. 1945 Officers of the Indian National Army are tried in the fort. The surviving barrack buildings now carry the memory of that late-colonial political use.
7. 1947 Jawaharlal Nehru raises the national flag after independence. The prime minister’s annual address from the ramparts keeps the Lahore Gate in active national use.
8. 2007 UNESCO inscribes the Red Fort Complex. The protected property joins the Mughal palace, Salimgarh and their British layers rather than presenting only an idealised seventeenth-century court.

Survival and restoration

The enclosure retains its principal walls, gates, audience halls and a line of riverfront pavilions, but it is not a complete Mughal palace. Demolition and military construction after 1857 changed both the density and circulation of the site. The river has also shifted away from the eastern wall, replacing an intended waterside edge with roads and urban infrastructure.

UNESCO considers the Mughal and British fabric authentic while noting uncertainty around parts of the present garden layout. Conservation must therefore protect several periods at once. The open ground, barracks and altered gardens are evidence of use and loss, not empty space to be ignored.

• Official website
• Wikipedia