Bijapur city is the district headquarters of Bijapur District of Karnataka state. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importance built during the rule of Adil Shahi dynasty. Bijapur is located 530 km northwest of Bangalore and about 550 km from Mumbai.and 384 km from Hyderabad.
Bijapur's urban population as per 2011 census is 3.26 lakhs, perhaps the 9th biggest city in Karnataka. Bijapur Municipal Corporation is the newest(9th) city corporation formed under the KMC act along with Shimoga(10th) (3.22 lakhs) and Tumkur (11th) (3.05 lakhs) city corporations as per 2011 census. The other existing city corporations in Karnataka state in descending order of population are Bengaluru, Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Mangalore, Davangere and Bellary. Administratively, Bijapur district comes under Belgaum division along with Bagalkote, Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada (Karwar) districts.
The city was established in the 10th-11th centuries by the Kalyani Chalukyas and was known as Vijayapura (City of victory). The city came under the influence of the Khilji Sultanate in Delhi by the late 13th century. In 1347, the area was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga. By this time, the city was being referred as Vijapur or Bijapur. Bijapur, Karnataka
In 1518, the Bahmani Sultanate split into five splinter states known as the Deccan sultanates, one of which was Bijapur, ruled by the kings of the Adil Shahi dynasty (1490–1686). The city of Bijapur owes much of its greatness to Yusuf Adil Shah, the founder of the independent state of Bijapur. The rule of this dynasty ended in 1686, when Bijapur was conquered during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. After the 1818 defeat of the Peshwa by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, Bijapur passed into the hands of the British East India Company, and was assigned to the princely state Satara.
In 1848 the territory of Satara, along with Bijapur, was annexed to Britain's Bombay Presidency when the last ruler died without a male heir. The British carved a new district by the name Kaladagi. The district included present-day Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. Bijapur was made the administrative headquarters of the district in 1885, when the headquarters were moved from Bagalkot. After India's Independence in 1947, the district became part of Bombay state, and was reassigned to Mysore State, later Karnataka, in 1956. The former southern taluks of the district were separated in 1997 to form Bagalkot District.