Names in Colombo

The origin of Names in Colombo

The best residential town in Colombo during the Dutch era was 'Grandpass' :  (from Grande Passo). Some old Dutch houses and even a Dispensary are still there?

Other interesting names that still survive from those days:

Main Street: (Roa Direto)

The Dutch remembered one of their governors – Hulft who died during the siege of Colombo, with Hulftsdorp and recalled some of their native place names like Leyden and Delft.


The Dutch named Maliban Street to identify the fashionable promenade in Pettah – Maliban meaning the MMall.


Kayman's Gate refers to 'kayman' – crocodiles that were found in the area where the rivulet entered the sea.


Wolvendaal meant the dale of wolves.


Bloemendahl is a vale of flowers.


Korteboam means short trees.


Beira (mythology), the mother to all the gods and goddesses in the Celtic mythology of Scotland.


There was a time when Kollupitiya was known as Baradeniya. It was a beautiful rustic village with coconut gardens and cinnamon trees that grew wild and narrow cart-tracks which connected the few villas and homes here with the rest of the country.  For the purpose of postal services `Colombo 03’ consists of Kollupitiya. 


How Baradeniya became Kollupitiya - The year was 1664 and the king was Rajasinghe II whose cruel acts embittered his subjects. Three Kandyan chiefs sought to slay the king and place his 12-year-old son on the throne. One of the conspirators was Udanuwara Ambanwela Appuhamy. When the plot failed, the king had two of the rebel leaders beheaded. However, instead of executing Abanwela Appuhamy, the most feared of the rebels, he handed him over to the Dutch to undergo what he thought would be a more brutal torture. Instead, the Dutch set him free.   Ambanwela Appuhamy took the Dutch name of Van Ry-cloff and built up a good relationship with the Dutch who gave him a large plot of land by the sea where he grew a coconut plantation which soon expanded over the ancestral farms of the natives who dared not complain. They could only retaliate by calling the plantation Kolla-ke-pitiya meaning 'Plundered land'. Today, there is still an area in Kollupitiya that is called Polwatte.


The footprints of Galle Face (Colombo 03) begins with Galle face south of Colombo Fort (Colombo 01).  Originally a vast swamp, thePortugueseand Dutch used this piece of land as a strategic defense. It was the British who developed the Green into a leisure ground.  


The 19th century paintings of John Deschamps, show the Galle-Face esplanade with a high road running through the centre of it.  Added later was a promenade by the sea and a driveway bordering the lake where the Dutch Military cemetery was.  Deschamps describes it as forming not only the principal exercising ground of the garrison, but also the general promenade of the inhabitants of Colombo and its vicinity. On foot, on horseback, or in carriages, people flocked to this salubrious setting to inhale the delicious breeze which is almost always to be found by the sea side of this part of the Island. The Galle Face esplanadeor Green was established by Governor Ward in 1859. An inscription reads "in the interest of the ladies and children of Colombo".


Cricket, football and polo were played on the Green. In 1829, horse racing was established under the auspices of Sir Edward Barnes.  Everyone enjoyed a day at the races: the vendors poured in from early, servants on leave spent their day there, as well as schoolboys who didn’t make it to school, palanquin carriages with shutters down and curtain drawn conveying Mohammedan ladies and of course the European community. A circular race stand was built by subscription. Initially it was a building of brick, coated with a plaster of chunam. Its conical roof was covered with an excellent thatch of kehjan (woven coconut leaves). From here a view of the whole course could be obtained. 

The race-balls were held here, the upper room being cool and airy for dancing; card-tables were placed in the verandahs, whilst the lower portion formed a good supper-room. Subsequently the roof was tiled. By the 1870s it had become a more substantial building and was known as the Colombo Club. This building still stands, even though maybe not in its original modest form, and is now the Crystal Ballroom of the Taj SamudraHotel Colombo.


At one end of the green was the Galle Face Boarding House, forerunner of the present Galle Face Hotel, which was constructed in 1887.


Today the green has lost much in its extent; but after a long period of neglect has recently been restored back to the chief leisure ground of modern Colombo for people of all walks of life.


A temple, a church, a school, Kollupitiya Walukarama Buddhist Templeis said to be the oldest temple in Colombo. It was founded in the 1800s by Ven. Panditha Valane Sri Siddhahatta Maha Nayake Thera, who was also the founder member of the Maha Sangha Saba of theSiyam Nikaya of the Kotte Chapter. 

The land for the construction of the temple was donated by a famous indigenous medicine physician of Kollupitiya, Arnolis Silva.


St. Andrew’s Scots Kirk founded in 1842 as a Church of Scotland by Scots living in Ceylon, has today become the International Church in Colombo welcoming into its fellowship people of all nations and denominations of the Christian faith.


Jinaraja Kanista Vidyalaya down Dharmakirthi Ramya Road dates back to 1898. Then named "Jinaraja Buddhist English School" this was the oldest Buddhist English mixed school in Colombo. This school was established for boys and girls of Colombo managed by the Buddhist Theosophical Society, Colombo, under the guidance of Col. Henry Steele Olcott.


A jeweller, a textile dealer, a baker, a grocer, an optician and a private hospital in Galle Face Court 1 was the first multi storey block of flats in Sri Lanka and the domed addition which followed as Galle Face Court 2 were both buildings that were initiated by the Macan Markar family as residential, business and real estate ventures. The dome housed an observatory. The road here was renamed Sir Macan Markar Mawatha on account of the contribution of the Macan Markar family towards industry, business, trading and politics

***

Ten Places In Colombo And The Origins Of Their Names

5 APRIL 2018

Vinod Moonesinghe – roar.lk

As Sri Lankan towns go, Colombo is relatively young—a mere five centuries from when the Portuguese established a fort and expelled the Muslim inhabitants. With the exception of Galle and Negombo, it is surely the city with the most colonial influence. The names of its streets and districts reflected its colonial heritage; at least until the authorities changed the names to more indigenous ones. Several of the surviving names have obscure origins. Here are some of them:

Maligakanda And Maligawatta

In May 1587, King Rajasinghe of Sitawaka, having conquered the Kandyan Kingdom, laid siege to the Portuguese fort of Colombo, with 60,000 men, 150 guns, 11,600 muskets and firelocks and 120 war elephants. The siege lasted nine months, but the 350 Portuguese soldiers in Colombo held out.

Under the Portuguese, the city walls encompassed the Pettah, and the Beira was much bigger than it is now. The fort could only be approached from the south and east, and a moat defended the eastern approaches. Rajasinghe ordered a deep ditch to be dug, thereby draining the eastern approaches. He located his headquarters on a hill further back, which came to be known as Maligakanda (palace hill), since he held court there. The fields adjacent became Maligawatte (palace gardens).

Hulftsdorp

In October 1655, a 10,000-strong army belonging to the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie  or V.O.C.), aided by 16,000 troops of King Rajasinghe II, laid siege to the Portuguese-held fort of Colombo.The Dutch commander, Gerard Pieterszoon Hulft, located his command post on a hill close to, and overlooking, the western rampart of the fort. During the course of the siege, Hulft went down to the front lines and received a bullet in his chest, expiring on the spot. A month later, in May 1656, the last 73 Portuguese troops, the only survivors of a bustling city of many thousands, surrendered. The Dutch hill on which Hulft had his headquarters became “Hulfts Dorp”, or “Hulft’s village”. Today, the name is often mis-spelt, as for example, Hultsdorf.

Gerard Pieterszoon Hulft meets Rajasinghe II on 8 April, 1656. Print attributed to Gonsales Appelmans, courtesy: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Wolvendaal

During the Dutch siege of Colombo, John van der Laan, Hulft’s second-in-command, quartered himself in a Portuguese church named for Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Dutch misconstrued (and mis-spelled) the name as “Agoa de Loepo” or “Quia de Lobo”, which they mistranslated as “Vale of Wolves”, Wolven Daal. It gained in importance after the Dutch built a church there, 375 years ago.

Our Lady of Guadelupe is a statue of the Virgin Mary, originally from Guadalupe in Spain, around which a cult formed. Interestingly, the place name actually derived from the Arabic “wadd al lubb”, meaning either “hidden river” or “river of wolves” (Arabic-speaking Muslims occupied much of Spain for seven centuries). “Guadalupe”, pronounced “waa da loope”, provided the Sinhala and Tamil term still used for the area, Aadilippu.

Jinthupitiya

The Anglican Church of St Thomas lies about 500 metres from Wolvendaal Church. The Portuguese reportedly found a Nestorian cross on the site(meaning that Persian Christians may have worshipped there) and therefore built a shrine there to St Thomas (São Tomé). During the siege of Colombo, the Dutch stationed several batteries here. After the Dutch took over, they demolished the shrine. In front of the shrine lay a large open space, which the Sinhalese called San Thome Pitiya, the field of St Thomas. The Dutch turned the field into a cemetery, part of which they turned over to graves of non-believers or “gentiles”, gentio in Portuguese (which was the lingua franca of Colombo until the mid-19th century). Hence, “the Field of St Thomas” became the “Field of Gentiles”, Gentio Pitiya, pronounced Jinthu Pitiya.

Aluthmawatha

Dutch Governor Petrus Vuyst, on landing in Colombo to take office in 1726, said he would rule “with the wisdom of Solomon and the boldness of Vuyst”. He suffered from a paranoid personality disorder, which manifested itself when he arrested several people on false charges, exiling some and executing 19 others by beheading, disemboweling and quartering them. After three years of his reign of terror, the V.O.C. recalled him to Batavia and had him beheaded whilst sitting in a chair (due to his status), disemboweled and quartered.

While still Governor, he fixated upon getting a good view of the Colombo harbour from a hill in Mutwal, called “Buona Vista” on account of the view. In order to get there faster and more comfortably, he had a new road built from the Pettah. Because carts could not get there, paving stones were passed from hand to hand. The new road came to be called Aluth Mawatha, “New Avenue”. Today it bears the repetitive moniker “Aluth Mawatha Road”.

Vystwyke Road

Vuyst’s residence at the Mutwal end of Aluth Mawatha came to be known as Vuyst Wyk (Vuyst’s village), commemorated today in Vystwyke Road. In this area, Vuyst’s bloodthirsty reputation received a further boost. A legend arose that Vuyst and his Malay cook developed a cannibal appetite, and that villagers travelling alone in the night near Vuyst Wyk would disappear. After Vuyst’s removal, a buried pile of bones came to light, or so rumour had it. A century later, residents claimed that Vuyst’s cries could be heard emanating from an abandoned well, as he did penance for his misdeeds in a burning iron chair.

Captain’s Garden

During the Dutch occupation, the Beira Lake extended as far as Hulftsdorp, much of what is now the railway yard between the Maradana and Fort stations being under water, with a peninsula sticking out into the eastern branch of the lake from Suduwella. Subsequent reclamation between this promontory and Lake House created D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha. In the 18th century, in order to regulate the activities of South Indian Chetties involved in the spice trade, the V.O.C. installed a Captain on this promontory. Accordingly, the peninsula came to be known as “Captain’s Garden”.

The Chetties worshipped a Shiva Lingam (sacred stone phallus) on the site, and the Captain, being a devout Christian, cast it into the Beira. The next day, it reappeared miraculously in the garden. Thereafter, the Captain allowed a Hindu temple, the modern Sri Kailasanatha Swami Devasthanam, to be built; the neighbourhood’s main claim to fame.

Bagatale And Alfred House

Charles Edward Layard, a member of the Ceylon Civil Service, purchased a bungalow in Kollupitiya,together with a large cinnamon plantation, stretching from the Galle Road to what is now Thurstan Road. He demolished the bungalow and built a mansion, and called the estate “Bagatelle”, most probably after the French game. The estate later passed into the hands of Arbuthnot and Co, agents for the Government of Ceylon in India. Jeronis de Soyza, a wealthy arrack rentier and planter, bought the house and estate. His son, Charles Henry de Soyza, an ardent monarchist, once entertained Queen Victoria’s son, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh (later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) at the house, and thereafter renamed the mansion “Alfred House”. He also named after Alfred the model farm on the site of the present Royal Colombo Golf Club links. C. H. de Soyza’s heirs split up the estate, with the result that it sprouted a number of roads named after Alfred: Alfred House Gardens, Alfred House Road, Alfred House Avenue, and Alfred Place; also after the Queen: Queen’s Road and Queen’s Avenue; and after C. H. de Soyza himself: Charles Circus, Charles Avenue, Charles Way, Charles Place and Charles Drive. The original name of the estate remains in Bagatelle Road. Unfortunately, the Colombo Municipal Council in its wisdom decided that the correct spelling should be “Bagatale”, presumably meaning “plain of the gods”.

Bagatalle House, courtesy Lankapura

Layard’s Road/Broadway

Charles Edward Layard married Barbara Bridgetina Mooyaart, the daughter of Gualterus Mooyaart, an administrator in the V.O.C., and they had 20 children and over 200 grandchildren (I. G. P. Herbert Dowbiggin was a great-grandchild). One of their sons, Charles Peter Layard, joined the Ceylon Civil Service and went on to be acting Colonial Secretary and also the first Mayor of Colombo. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (K.C.M.G.) in 1876. In 1900, he represented the Governor at the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia.Layard’s Road in Bambalapitiya and Layard’s Broadway in Grandpass are named for him. Another, although unofficial, claim to fame is the Wellawatte Canal, built while Layard was Government Agent for the Western Province. Intended to drain flood waters, the level of the canal turned out to be too high, so the required flow did not take place. For this reason, it became known as “Layard’s Folly”.

Pennyquick Road

Pennyquick Road in Wellawatte is probably named for Charles Edward Ducat Pennycuick. Born in India in 1844, he lost his father Brigadier John Pennycuick at the Battle of Chillianwalla in the Punjab in 1849. He joined the Ceylon Civil Service and became Mayor of Colombo in 1893. Subsequently appointed Postmaster General, he finished his career as Treasurer of Ceylon, receiving a K.C.M.G. in retirement.

His elder brother, Colonel John Pennycuick, became quite famous in India. As an engineer in the Public Works Department, he built the Mullaiperiyar dam across the Periyar River in Kerala, and is worshipped as a god by farmers in the districts of the Madurai zone of Tamil Nadu, who irrigate their fields with waters from the reservoir. On the other hand, C. E. D. Pennecuick’s main claim to fame appears to be that, as Mayor, he considered objectionable the killing of stray dogs by drowning them in the Beira, so in 1894 he ordered the construction of a gas chamber for the purpose.

***

Joyous Jaffna

Jaffna (Tamil:  யாழ்ப்பாணம் Yalpanam, Sinhala: යාපනය Yāpanaya) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th largest city. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb, Nallurserved as the capital of the four centuries-long medieval Jaffna kingdom. Prior to the Sri Lankan civil war, it was Sri Lanka's second most populated city after the commercial capital Colombo. Since the 1980s insurgent uprising, military occupation, extensive damage, expulsion and depopulation has happened. Since the end of civil war in 2009, refugees and internally displaced people are returning to their homes and government and private sector reconstruction has begun.

Historically, Jaffna has been a contested city. It was made into a colonial port town during the Portuguese occupation of the Jaffna peninsula in 1619. It changed hands to the Dutch colonials, who lost it to the British in 1796. After Sri Lanka gained independence 1948, the political relationship between the minority Sri Lankan Tamils and majority Sinhalese worsened and after the Black July pogrom, civil war erupted in 1983. Jaffna was occupied by the rebelLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1986 and from 1989 until 1995. Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) briefly occupied the city in 1987. The Sri Lankan military gained control in 1995.

The majority of the city’s population are Sri Lankan Tamils, although there was a significant number of Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Tamils and other ethnic groups present in the city prior to the civil war. Most Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus followed by Christians, Muslims and a small Buddhist minority. The city is home to number of educational institutions established during the colonial and post-colonial period. It also has number of commercial institutions, minor industrial units, banks, hotels and other government institutions such as the hospital. It is home to the popular Jaffna library that was burnt down and rebuilt. The city is anchored by the Jaffna fort rebuilt during the Dutch colonial period.

Excavations that were conducted by Sir Paul E. Pieris during 1918 and 1919, that were utilised in the ancient Jaffna capital of Kantarodai and Vallipuram; a coastal town six kilometres from Point Pedro revealed coins called "puranas", and "kohl" sticks that dated back to 2000 B.C similar in style to the sticks used to paint pictures in Egypt, suggesting that the Northern part of Sri Lanka was a "flourishing" settlement prior to the arrival of Prince Vijaya. In the chronicleMahavamsa, around sixth century B.C, there are descriptions of exotic tribes such as the Yakkhas strictly inhabiting the centre of the island, and the Nagas who worshiped snakes inhabiting the northern, western and eastern parts of the island, which was historically referred to as "Nagadipa". Jaffna city[citation needed], along with the rest of the Jaffna peninsula was part of the Kingdom of Tambapanni in 543 BC. Ancient Sinhala chronicles including Mahavamsa describes Jaffna city as a vital part of the island nation.[4] It Briefly come under the rule of South Indian Kingdoms, after several incursions it has been recaptured by Sinhalese Kings thereafter, last of which was Parakramabahu VI.

Jaffna city was established as a colonial administrative center by the Portuguese colonials in 1621. Prior to the military capitulation to the Portuguese Empire in 1619, the capital of the local Jaffna Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Aryacakravarti was Nallur. Nallur is close to the city limits of Jaffna. The capital city was known in royal inscriptions and chronicles as Cinkainakar and in other sources as Yalpaanam in Tamil and Yapaapatuna inSinhalese.

Entrance of Jaffna Fort that was originally built by the Portuguese and renovated by the Dutch on 1680.

From 1590, Portuguese merchants and Catholic missionaries were active within the Jaffna kingdom. Impetus for a permanent fortified settlement happened only after 1619, when the expeditionary forces of the Portuguese Empire led by Phillippe de Oliveira captured the last native king Cankili II.[12] Phillipe de Oliveira moved the center of political and military control from Nallur to Jaffnapatao[13] (variously spelt as Jaffnapattan or Jaffnapattam), the Portuguese rendition of the native name for the former Royal capital. Jaffnapatao was attacked number of times by a local rebel Migapulle Arachchi and his allied Thanjavur Nayakkar expeditionary forces but the Portuguese defence of the city withstood the attacks. Jaffnapatao was a small town. It had a fort, a harbour and Catholic chapels and other government buildings. Portuguese merchants took over the lucrative trade of Elephants from the interior and monopolised the import of goods from Colombo and India thus disfranchising the local merchants. Portuguese period was a time of population movement to the Vannimais in the south, religious change and as well as introduction of many European educational and health care methods to the city.

Nallur Temple

St. James Church

Mosque

Buddhist Temple

In 1658, Portuguese lost Jaffapatao to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) after a three-month siege. During the Dutch occupation, the city grew in population and size. Dutch were also tolerant towards native mercantile and religious activities. Most Hindu temples that were destroyed by the Portuguese were rebuilt. A community of mixed Eurasian Dutch Burghers formed and became part of the city during this period. The Dutch expanded rebuilt the fort considerably, built notable Presbyterian churches and other government buildings most which survived until the 1980s and were destroyed or damaged during the Civil war.[18] During the Dutch period, Jaffna also became prominent as a trading town in locally grown agricultural products with the native merchants and farmers profiting as much as the VOC merchants. Great Britain took over Dutch possessions in Sri Lankan from 1796.Britain maintained many of the Dutch mercantile, tolerant religious and taxation policies. During the British colonial period, almost all the schools that eventually played role in the high literacy achievement of the Jaffna residents were built by missionaries belonging to American Ceylon Mission, Weslyan Methodist Mission, Saivite reformer Arumuka Navalar and others. All the major roads and railway line connecting the city with Colombo, Kandy and the rest of the country were built. Under the British, Jaffna enjoyed a period of rapid growth and prosperity. The excess wealth of the citizens of the city was directed towards building civic projects like temples, schools, library and the museum.

Glorious Galle Fort

Galle Fort, in the Bay of Galle on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, was built first in 1588 by the Portuguese, then extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards. It is a historical, archaeological and architectural heritage monument, which even after more than 425 years maintains a polished appearance, due to extensive reconstruction work done by the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka.

The fort has a colorful history, and today has a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population. The Sri Lankan government and many Dutch people who still own some of the properties inside the fort, are looking to make this one of the modern wonders of the world. The heritage value of the fort has been recognized by the UNESCO and the site has been inscribed as a cultural heritage UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria iv, for its unique exposition of "an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries."

The Galle Fort, also known as the Dutch Fort or the "Ramparts of Galle", withstood the Boxing Day Tsunami which damaged part of the coastal area towns of the southern region. It has been since restored. The Galle Fort also houses the elite mangalla resort hotel, located near the Dutch Reformed Church. It was originally built in 1684 to house the Dutch Governor and his staff. It was then converted into a hotel and named then as the New Oriental Hotel in 1865, which catered to the many European passengers traveling between Europe and Galle Port in the 19th century.

There are many versions of the word ‘Galle’ that is suffixed to the fort. One version is that it is a derivative of ‘Gallus’ from the Dutch language, meaning “chicken”. The other version is that it was a "galaa", in the Sinhalese language, meaning a “cattle herd” or place where cattle was herded.

Galle's earliest historical existence is traced to Ptolemy's world map of 125–150 AD when it was a busy port, trading with Greece, Arab countries, China and others. Its mention as a "port of call of the Levant' is made in the cosmography of the "Cosmas Indicopleustes". This is the harbor where the Portuguese, under the leadership of Lorenzo de Almeida, made their first landing in 1505 on the island and caused a notable change in the history of the island with their close friendship with Dharma Parakrama Bahu (1484–1514), the then king of the country. Before the Portuguese came here, Ibn Batuta had touched base at this port. This was the beginning of the fort’s history, which was built by the Portuguese, along with a Franciscan chapel (now mostly in ruins) inside the fort in 1541. The fort also, in later years, served as prison camp to incarcerate Sinhalese natives who opposed the Portuguese. 

The Portuguese later moved to Colombo from Galle. In 1588, however, they were attacked by the Sinhalese King Raja Sinha I (1581–93) of Sitawaka, which forced the Portuguese to go back to Galle. At Galle, they initially built a small fort out of palm trees and mud. They called it the Santa Cruz, and later extended it with a watch tower and three bastions and a "fortalice" to guard the harbor.

Sea Wall of the Galle Fort

In 1640, the events took a turn with the Dutch entering the fray joining hands with King Rajasinha III to capture the Galle Fort. The Dutch, with a force of some 2,500 men under Koster, captured the fort from the Portuguese in 1640 itself. Although not an ideal situation for the Sinhalese, they were instrumental in building the fort as seen in its present form in the Dutch architectural style. Fortifications continued to be built until the early 18th century. The establishment built consisted of public administration buildings, warehouses and business houses and residential quarters. A Protestant Church (planned by Abraham Anthonisz) was also built in baroque style in 1775 to cater to the colonists and the local people who were converted to Christianity. The most prominent buildings in the fort complex were the Commandant's residence, the arsenal and the gun house. Other buildings erected in the fort catered to trade and defense requirements such as workshops for forgings, carpentry, smithy, rope making and so forth. They also built an elaborate system of sewers that were flooded at high tide, taking the sewage away to sea.

The British took over the fort on 23 February 1796, one week after Colombo was captured. Sri Lanka remained a British colony formally from 1815 till it became an independent island nation in 1948. In 1865, part of the fort was converted into the New Oriental Hotel, becoming the Amangalla in 2005. The importance of Galle also declined after the British developed Colombo as their capital and main port in the mid nineteenth century.

Galle Fort located within Galle, which is located at the extreme southwest corner of the island, in the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, where the shoreline turns east towards Matara and Tangalle. The fort, like most of the forts in Sri Lanka, is built on a small rocky peninsula, belonging to the sea as much as to the land. As it exists today, it covers an area of 52 hectares (130 acres).

Highway A2 provides road links to Galle from Colombo (a distance of 113 kilometres (70 mi)) and the rest of the country along the west coast or from the east along the south coast. Since 2012 an expressway has linked Galle to Colombo. Rail links are also available to Colombo and Matara. Sea route is through the Galle Port at the Galle Harbor.

The Galle City (population circa 120,000, over an area of 16.5 square kilometres (6.4 sq mi) has developed around the Galle Fort area which covers around 52 hectares (130 acres). The story of the fort is well illustrated by many signages and plaques, which provide information about each monument. There are many Ceylon Moor (Muslim) families who live inside this fort, who have been the main trading merchants in the region since ancient times.

The fort, originally built by the Portuguese in the 16th century to defend Galle, was an earthen structure with pallisades covering the northern land side with rampart and three bastions. They believed that the sea ward side was impregnable and hence did not construct any fortifications on the sea side. The sea wall was an addition made in 1729 to make the city planning for defense purposes complete in all respects.

When the fort came under the control of the Dutch, they considered the old fortifications built by the Portuguese unsafe as they were made of earth and palisades. Hence, the Dutch decided to fully encircle the entire peninsula by building impregnable fortifications as defense against other colonial agencies in the region. They built some 14 bastions with coral and granite stones over an area of (52 hectares (130 acres). Many of the fortification walls were built in 1663. The city built within the fort was well planned with a grid layout with the peripheral roads aligned parallel to fort's ramparts.

The fort has two gates. The two towering gates to the fort are termed “Portcullised gates” and the first gate of entry from the port is inscribed "ANNO MDCL XIX" which has depiction of the Dutch Coat of Arms with the ubiquitous emblem of cock and an inset "VOC" inscribed in the center.

The Main Gate to the Galle Fort December 2011

The Main Gate is in the northern stretch of the fort on the land side and is heavily fortified. The Portuguese had built a moat here which was widened during the Dutch rule by breaking the fort wall in 1667 and building the Star, Moon and Sun bastions. Its construction is also dated to the British period from 1897 to facilitate easy flow of traffic to the old town. This gate was fortified with a draw bridge surrounded by a moat; inscriptions here indicate 1669 as the year of construction. Some of the other named bastions are: The Aurora Bastion, the Tremon Bastion, the Kleipenberg Bastion and the Emaloon Bastion, adding an element of grandeur to the fort as a whole.

Walking along the fort wall in a clockwise direction leads to the Old Gate where the British Coat of Arms is seen inscribed at the entrance at the top. In the inner part of the gate there is the 1668 dated inscription of letters VOC, which is an abbreviation of Verenigde Oostindindische Compagnie, meaning Dutch East India Company with the insignia of a cock flanked by two lions. Further along the fort wall is the Portuguese built oldest bastion, known as Zwart Bastion, meaning Black Bastion. The eastern section of the fort terminates in the Point Utrecht Bastion; the powder house is also seen here. An 18 metres (59 ft) high light house was erected here in 1938. The succeeding stretch of the fort wall is the location of Flag Rock Bastion, which was used as a signaling station to warn the ships entering the port of the hazardous rocky stretches of the bay. Ships were warned by firing musket shots from the Pigeon Island near the Flag Rock. Further along the fort walls is the Trion Bastion where a windmill drew water from the sea to sprinkle the dusty roads of the town; it is also a view point to watch the sunset. Many more bastions are seen along the fortifications from this location up to the Main Gate.

The Fort really resembles a small laid out walled town, with a rectangular grid pattern of streets full of the low houses with gables and verandas in the Dutch colonial style. It has a well laid out road network and many buildings which are now heritage monuments such as the Oriental Hotel, originally built in 1694 for the exclusive use of the Dutch Governor and his staff, now converted into a franchise of the Aman Resorts, named the AmanGalla. The fort area is studded with churches, mosques, many old commercial and government buildings. Some of the locals stroll along the walls of the fort in the evenings.

After the fort came under the control of the British in 1796, it remained their southern headquarters. They made many modifications to the fort such as closing of the moat, building of houses, a lighthouse on the Utrecht Bastion, a gate between the Moon Bastion and the Sun Bastion. A tower was particularly erected in 1883 to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Second World War saw many more fortifications built to defend the fort. In spite of all the changes made over the years, since it was first built between the 16th and the 19th century, the Galle Fort still remains a unique monument complex said to be "the best example of a fortified city with a fusion of European architecture and South Asian traditions built by Europeans in South and Southeast Asia".

In the fort area, many buildings are of Dutch vintage with street names also in Dutch. The sewerage system built in the fort area ensured that the city sewerage was flushed into the sea during the tidal cycle. The Dutch exploited the musk rats in the sewers by exporting them to extract musk oil.

Some of the important heritage monuments in the fort are the Dutch Reformed Church; the old Dutch government house; the National Maritime Museum near the Old Gate, residence of the Commander; Great Warehouse built around 1669 to store spices, ship equipment and so forth; the Meera Maqam Mosque built in 1904; Buddhist temple built at the site of Portuguese Roman Catholic church; the All Saints Anglican Church built in 1871; and the Clock Tower dated 1707 and cast in 1709, which rang every hour.

Dutch Reformed Church

The Dutch Reformed Church is near the Amangalla Hotel. The church was built in 1640. However, it was re-modelled between 1752 and 1755. The church is paved with grave stones from the old Dutch cemetery. There is an old organ of 1760 vintage in the church where services are held and a pulpit made of calamander wood from Malaysia is used.

Meera Maqam Mosque

Street Names

A street in Galle Fort area

Some of the street names, a legacy from the colonial period, are the Pedlar Street or ‘Moorse Kramerstraat’, the Moorish pedlar (or peddler) street, named after the Ceylon Moors, who were retailers along with chettis; the Lighthouse Street ‘‘Zeeburgstraat’ ‘Middelpuntstraat’ named after the lighthouse which was destroyed in a fire in 1936; the Hospital Street, the location of the Dutch Hospital, the house of the Surgeon and the Medical Garden; Leyenbahnstraat, the Old Rope-Walk Street where coir rope was made; the Church Street, named after a church which was demolished in the 7th century; the Parawa Street, named after the Parawa migrants from South India who were fishermen and traders; and the Chando Street named after the toddy tappers and Dutch Burghers who owned coconut gardens and small ark distilleries.

Breadfruit Tree

The breadfruit tree was introduced in Galle first by the Dutch; one of the oldest breadfruit trees in Sri Lanka is stated to be in Galle Fort. It is believed that the Dutch introduced breadfruit which is of ‘heaty’ nature hoping that would either kill them or make them sick. However, the Sri Lankans found a neutralizer to this in the coconut tree. They mixed breadfruit with coconut and evolved a delicacy, which became popular, as it was found tasty and nourishing. This tree is now grown across Sri Lanka.

The fort area is occupied by mostly artists, writers, photographers, designers and poets of foreign origin and is now a mixed bag of boutiques, hotels and restaurants.

Following the disaster caused by the Asian Tsunami of 2004 when many buildings were damaged, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs launched a project for renovation and reconstruction, but paying attention to the former architecture to retain a historical feel.

The Galle Fort has both Portuguese and Dutch era buildings, reflecting the bygone era of the colonial domination of the city. These buildings needed attention as many changes had taken place over the centuries. The Government of Sri Lanka, through its Galle Heritage Foundation under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage has taken the initiative of restoring some of the heritage buildings to their old glory. The restoration work has been financially supported by the Government of The Netherlands. The renovation work conforms to guidelines set by the Archeological Department of Sri Lanka. Technical guidance was provided by the Architectural Wing of the University of Moratuwa.^[ Very many of the old town houses have been bought up by expatriates and rich Sri Lankans and Indians and renovated as holiday homes.

The National Maritime Museum in Galle Fort area, near the Old gate, was established in 1997 as an exclusive Maritime Archaeology Centre with active involvement of the Government of the Netherlands in the project in view of the findings that the Galle Harbor consisted of over 21 historical shipwreck sites and associated artifacts.

The Way it used to be

[to be updated, a street by street description of the people, places, events, and businesses that thrived along the streets of Galle Fort over the years. awaiting input from several people who lived in the Fort in the bygone years]