Chankanai Dutch Church
Chankanai Dutch Church (Photo credit: Google Street View)
The ancient Chankanai Dutch Church (Sinhala: චංකානෙයි ලන්දේසි පල්ලිය; Tamil: சங்கானை இடச்சுத் தேவாலயம்) is located in the rural village of Chankanai in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. Built of coral stones, the church presently remains in an evocatively ruined and roofless state. History During the 16th century, Roman Catholicism was introduced to many areas in the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka by the Portuguese and they built a large number of churches in those areas including Jaffna (Jayasinghe, 2016). The church at Chankanai was built by them in 1641 (De Silva, 1988; Hettiarachchi, 1990). The Dutch took over the control of areas previously occupied by the Portuguese by the mid-17th century. They convert dozens of Portuguese churches to the use of the Dutch Reformed faith. The Chankanai Church is one of such churches occupied by them (De Silva, 1988). The church building The church building now remains in a state of ruins. The t…
