Batticaloa Fort

Batticaloa Fort is an old fort situated in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

History

The history of the Batticaloa fort runs back to the 17th century. The fort was built by the Portuguese in 1628 (Mandawala, 2012). It was captured by the Dutch on 18 May 1638 (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 inside the present fort (Mandawala, 2012).

 

Attribution

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

References

1) 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 20 December 2020
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map