Batticaloa Fort

Batticaloa Fort (Sinhala: මඩකලපුව බලකොටුව; Tamil: மட்டக்களப்புக் கோட்டை) is an old fort situated in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

History

The history of the Batticaloa Fort runs back to the 17th century. Built by the Portuguese in 1628, the fort was captured by the Dutch on 18 May 1638 (De Silva, 1988; Mandawala, 2012). However, with the advent of the British, the fort was lost to the Dutch.

The site

The fort has been built near the Batticaloa Lagoon. It is nearly square in shape with four bastions on each corner. Two sides of the fort are surrounded by the Batticaloa lagoon and the other two are surrounded by a canal. It is still in a good state of preservation and some government buildings are located inside the fort. The Portuguese had another small fort at Tanavare near Batticaloa but no remains of that fort are found today (Mandawala, 2012). A Buddhist Stupa of the 1st century A.D. is said to be found within the present fort premises (Mandawala, 2012).

Attribution

1) Batticaloa Portuguese (dutch) fort by AntanO is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

References

1) De Silva, R.R.K., 1988. Illustrations and Views of Dutch Ceylon 1602-1796: A Comprehensive Work of Pictorial Reference with Selected Eye-Witness Accounts. Brill Archive. pp.138-141.
2) Mandawala, P.B., 2012. Sri Lanka: Defending the military heritage; legal, administrative and financial challenges. Defending the military heritage; legal, financial and administrative issues. Reports from the Seminar 16 – 17 May, 2011, in Karlskrona, Sweden, organised by ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Legal, Financial and Administrative Issues (ICLAFI) and the Swedish Fortifications Agency of Sweden. pp.100-101.

Location Map

This page was last updated on 30 April 2023