Colombo Port Maritime Museum

Colombo Port Maritime Museum

Colombo Port Maritime Museum (Sinhala: කොළඹ වරාය සමුද්‍ර කෞතුකාගාරය) is located at No. 19 on Chaitya Road in Colombo Fort, Sri Lanka. It is operated and maintained by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. History The museum has been established in one of the few well-preserved Dutch Buildings in Colombo (Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). It was constructed by the Dutch in 1676 and was used as a store and a prison (Manathunga, 2016; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). There were four buildings erected during the Dutch period made of Kabok (laterite) and limestones (Manathunga, 2016). They were mainly used to store long-lasting food items such as liquor and cinnamon (Manathunga, 2016). A distinctive feature of these buildings was their barrel roofs known as Pakhuizen (Manathunga, 2016). In 1951, two of these buildings were demolished and another was razed to the ground in 1999 (Manathunga, 2016). The present building is the only one left and it was refurbished and converted into a museum in 200…