The Olde Empire Hotel is a star-class heritage hotel situated next to Queens' Hotel in Kandy Ancient City, Sri Lanka.
History
The hotel building is said to have been constructed in 1857 and the hotel was owned by the Fernando family since 27 December 1898. Arnold Wright's 1907 published book "Twentieth century impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources" mentions the proprietor of Kandy Empire Hotel as Nichol Francis Fernando (Wright, 1999). It is said that the hotel building was originally a coffee factory before it was converted into a hotel.
The hotel was used as a drinking bar/pub but was converted by the present owners into a guest house/budget hotel in the 1970s.
The hotel
The two-storied hotel consists of 14 bedrooms (No.13 missing) upstairs, with a verandah overlooking Kandy Lake. The upstairs floor is of wooden planks on timber beams.
A protected monument
The two-storey Olde Empire Hotel building at No. 21 on Temple Street in the Kandy Divisional Secretary’s Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government gazette notification published on 8 July 2005.
Attribution
References
1) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. no: 1401. 8 July 2005.
2) Wright, A. ed., 1999. Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources (first published in 1907). Asian Educational Services. pp.692-695.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 7 December 2022
