Viharamahadevi Park | Oldest and Largest Park in Colombo

Viharamahadevi Park | Oldest and Largest Park in Colombo

Viharamahadevi Park (Sinhala: විහාරමහාදේවි උද්‍යානය) is an urban and recreational park situated in Cinnamon Gardens in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest and the largest park within the vicinities of the Port of Colombo (Bajpai, 2019). The park was established on the land donated by Charles Henry De Zoysa during the British rule of Sri Lanka (1815-1948) and initially, it was known as "Victoria Park" (Bajpai, 2019; Karunarathne & Gunawardena, 2020). It was considered the central point of Colombo when applying the Garden City Concept to the city by Sir Patrick Geddes in 1921. At the time of World War II (1939-1945), the park was occupied by the British Army with the Australian 17th Brigade (Bajpai, 2019). After the war, the park was restored and opened to the public in 1951 (Bajpai, 2019). On 18 July 1958, the park was renamed after Queen Viharamahadevi, the mother of King Dutugemunu (161-137 B.C.) who was an important figurehead in Sri Lanka's history (FCD, 1…