St. Anne's National Shrine, Thalawila

St. Anne's Shrine Thalawila (Photo credit: Akila Wasala, Google street view)

St. Anne's National Shrine is a church situated in Thalawila in Puttalam District, Sri Lanka. It is considered the oldest national Catholic shrine in the country.

History

The foundation of the present church was laid by Oratorian Pedro Caetano in 1837 (Jayasinghe, 2016). Later, the successors of the Oratorians, the congregation of the Oblates of Mary added the transepts of the church (Jayasinghe, 2016). As inscribed on one of the roof beams, Henry Arthur Dinaux began the work of southern transept in 1880 and was completed in 1884 (Jayasinghe, 2016). The work of Northern transept was completed by Henry Joulainin in 1887 (Jayasinghe, 2016).

References

1) Jayasinghe, S., 2016. Nineteenth Century Catholic Church Architecture in Sri Lanka: Evolution of a Tropical Model. Bath, Proceedings of the ID@ 50 Integrated Design Conference, University of Bath.

Location Map

This page was last updated on 6 February 2022
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map