St. Paul's Church (Milagiriya)

St. Paul's Church (Sinhala: මිලාගිරිය ශාන්ත පාවුළු දේවස්ථානය) is an Anglican church in Milagiriya in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It is considered one of the oldest Anglican churches in the Colombo area.

History

On the site where present St. Paul’s Church stands was a church called Nossa Senhora Dos Milagres (our lady of Miracle) built by the Portuguese [(1597-1658) Manathunga, 2016]. The Portuguese left the island when Dutch took over control of their territories in 1658 and it is believed that this church was destroyed by the Dutch later. The British who replaced the Dutch power on the island in 1796 built a small church in Gothic style on this site again in 1848 and established a school attached to it in 1853 (Manathunga, 2016). The present church building is said to have been constructed in 1890 and it was renovated in 1903 (Manathunga, 2016).

Attribution

1) St. Paul's Church, Milagiriya by AntanO is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

References

1) Manathunga, S. B., 2016. Pauranika Sthana Saha Smaraka: Kolamba Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN: 955-9159-39-9. p.51.

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This page was last updated on 10 October 2022