Mannar Fort

Mannar Fort

Mannar Fort (Sinhala: මන්නාරම් බලකොටුව; Tamil: மன்னார்க் கோட்டை) is an ancient fort located on the island of Mannar, Sri Lanka. History The fort was built on Mannar Island soon after it was taken by the Portuguese viceroy, Don Constantino de Braganza about the year 1560  (Abeyasinghe, 1995). It surrendered to the Dutch on 22 February 1658 and they rebuilt the fort in 1696 (Mandawala, 2012).  On 5 October 1795, the British occupied the fort when the Dutch surrendered to them (Mandawala, 2012). A description of the Mannar Fort is found in the section related to Sri Lanka in Antonio Bocarro's seventeenth-century work entitled, "O Livro das plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, Cidadese Povoacoes do Estado da India Oriental" (Abeyasinghe, 1995). The fort The square-shaped fort is located on the eastern tip of the island shore next to the main bridge that connects the mainland with the Mannar Island. There are remains of many buildings and structures inside the fort. Of them, the chu…