Jaffna Fort

Jaffna Fort

Jaffna Fort (Sinhala: යාපනය බලකොටුව; Tamil: யாழ்ப்பாணக் கோட்டை) is a colonial fort built in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. Situated closer to the south of the Jaffna Peninsula, the fort has been erected adjacent to the Jaffna Lagoon (Wijebandara, 2014). The fort is considered an outstanding Dutch architectural site found in the South East Asian region. History Jaffna was controlled by the Portuguese from 1619 to 1658 and then by Dutch from 1658 to 1796 and finally by the British from 1796 to 1948 (Wijebandara, 2014). The fort was built by the Portuguese in 1619, as a four-sided garrison with other components such as ramparts, corner bastions, and a moat (Dias et al., 2016; Wijebandara, 2014). In 1658, it was captured by the Dutch after a three-month and a-half-month siege (Mandawala, 2012). The Dutch expanded and converted it into a pentagon-shaped fort using building materials such as limestones, coral stones, etc. to facilitate trading activities in Sri Lanka's Northern region. Th…