Phra Sumen Fort

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Phra Sumen Fort:

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Phra Sumen Fort is located adjacent to the Chao Phraya River between the Phra Pin Klao Bridge and Rama VIII Bridge. The fort is a national historic monument. The area around the Fort is a park used by the locals for evening fun.

Historically, Phra Sumen Fort was built in the reign of King Rama I. It was made from bricks coated with cement in octagon shaped. Its front side faces towards Bang Lamphu Canal the basements of the fort and the wall are made to be wide flattened bases and are situated 2 meters under the ground. The size from the northern side to the southern side is 45 meters wide. Its height from ground to the top of Bai Sema (battlements) is 10.50 meters, and 18.90 meters measured from the floor of the upper floor of the fort to the roof of the battle tower. It is a 3-storey tower and has 3 stair cases inside the fort. Also it has earth work and a shelter that protects the ammunition.

The ground floor of the fort is divided into 2 parts by a wall which having Bai Sema of the sharp pointed edge type, separating the ground floor's wall and the upper floor's wall there is a door that opens to the front side of the fort, and there is another big angled Bai Sema at the front of the fort of this floor. In each Bai Sema, there are small bored cavities of the cross shape. as for the second floor of the fort, there is one staircase at the back. The wall also having Bai Sema with a sharp pointed shape, the lower parts are bored cavities of the curved shape, there are 4 cavities in each side.

In the middle of the fort, there are 38 rooms for ammunition and weaponry storage. However, the 7 angle shaped battle tower and the roof were tumbled down during the reign of King Rama V and King Rama VII. in 1981 the fine arts department renovated the fort by using old photos taken during the reign of King Rama V and registered it as an national monument in the year 1949.