The Royal Palace Park, also known as Wales Park or Wace Park (Sinhala: වේල්ස් උද්යානය), is a small urban and recreational park situated on the top of a hill southwest of Kirimuhuda in Kandy City, Sri Lanka.
History
The hill where the park is situated was known in British times (1815-1948) as Castle Hill due to the belief that it was the site of a palace built for Konappu Bandara who reigned in Kandy by the name King Vimaladharmasuriya I [(1591-1604 A.D.) Briggs, 2018]. Later, a lakeside terrace was built there by King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1798-1815 A.D.), the last king of Sri Lanka (Briggs, 2018). It was remodelled and converted into a park in 1880 under the acting Colonial Secretary Herbert Wace (1851-1906) and opened in 1905 (Briggs, 2018; Denham, 1912).
The Park
The park extends into an area of 2 ha (4.9 acres). Presently, a Japanese artillery gun captured in Burma (present Myanmar) during World War II (1939-1945) is preserved in a small shelter on the park premises (Briggs, 2018).
References
1) Briggs, P., 2018. Sri Lanka. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN: 9781784770570. pp.394-395.
2) Denham, E.B., 1912. Ceylon at the Census of 1911. HC Cottle, government printer, Ceylon. p.55.
3) Karunaratna, N., 1999. Kandy, Past and Present, 1474-1998 A.D. Central Cultural Fund, Ministry of Religious and Cultural Affairs. p.44.
Attribution
1) SL Kandy asv2020-01 img20 Wace Park by A.Savin is licensed under the Free Art License 1.3
2) SL Kandy asv2020-01 img21 Wace Park by A.Savin is licensed under the Free Art License 1.3
3) SL Kandy asv2020-01 img18 Wace Park by A.Savin is licensed under the Free Art License 1.3
