St. James Church, Mutwal (Photo credit: Google Street View)
St. James the Great Church (Sinhala: මෝදර ශාන්ත ජේම්ස් දේවස්ථානය) is a Roman Catholic church situated in Mutwal (or Modara) in Colombo 15, Sri Lanka.
The history of this church runs back to the 19th century. It was built in 1872 to cater for the religious needs of the Roman Catholic community in the area. Peter Ilari, the first priest of the church is said to have planned the church building (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009).
The single-storey church building is sheltered by a high roof and a flat wooden ceiling. In the early 20th century, the whole building was re-plastered (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009). Except for two paintings by George Henrickus on the top corners of the ceiling, other paintings have been re-painted during the later renovations (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009)
References
1) De Silva, N.; Chandrasekara, D.P., 2009. Heritage Buildings of Sri Lanka. Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka, ISBN: 978-955-0093-01-4. p.118.
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This page was last updated on 10 August 2022
