The Delft Gateway (Sinhala: කොළඹ ඩෙල්ෆ්ට් දොරටුව) is located on the Commercial Bank building premises at No. 9, Bristol Street in Colombo Fort, Sri Lanka.
History
This gateway has been identified as one of the entrances to the now-destroyed Colombo Fort (Rajapakshe et al., 2018). It was built by the Dutch during their colonial rule on the island from 1658 to 1796 (Rajapakshe et al., 2018; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). The Dutch left the country in 1796 and the British took over the control of the areas held by them. Although the ramparts of the fort were removed by the British in about 1872 to acquire the space for their administrative buildings, they left this gateway unharmed (Rajapakshe et al., 2018).
The gate
The gate has been built using bricks and Kabok (laterite) stones (Rajapakshe et al., 2018). The width of the gate is 5.1 m and the perimeter of the remaining wall is 15.9 m (Rajapakshe et al., 2018). A stone slab containing the year 1854 is found placed near the gate (Rajapakshe et al., 2018).
Presently this monument is maintained by the Commercial Bank.
A protected monument
The Delft Gate in Bristol Street in the Grama Niladhari Wasama Fort in the Colombo Divisional Secretary’s Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government gazette notification published on 30 December 2011.
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Attribution
1) Voormalig Delftse Poort, westzijde - 20651163 - RCE by Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
References
1) Rajapakshe, S.; Bandara, T. M. C.; Vanninayake, R. M. B. T. A. B. (Editors), 2018. Puravidya Sthana Namavaliya: Kolamba Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Vol. I. Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN: 978-955-7457-19-2. p.21.
2) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. no: 1739. 30 December 2011. p.1093.
3) Welandawe, H., Weerasinghe, J., 2016. Urban Heritage in the Western Region Megapolis Planning Project. p.41.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 18 August 2022
