A narrow sliver of land stretches out from the mainland with the Puttlam lagoon on one side and the Indian ocean on the other. At the tip of this land lies Kalpitiya.
While fast gaining a reputation as a destination for leisure with a number of resorts coming up in the area and the many attractions such as whale and dolphin watching, water based adventure sports, etc; one should not forget that this place also has a lot of history. The old Dutch church and the Dutch fort are two of the remnants of a time that has passed by. In this article, we bring you a glimpse of the Dutch fort at Kalpitiya.
The present fort was built in the year 1667 on the site where the Portuguese had a stockade and a Jesuit chapel. Despite the fact that this fort has not undergone restoration like the Galle and Jaffna forts, it is still in a reasonably good condition with the ramparts and the structures of the buildings inside clearly visible.
There is a curious story explaining the arch at the entrance to the fort which looks very much like an archway to the entrance of a church. The legend is that the King of Kandy had granted permission only to build a church here and that the Dutch had built this arch to mislead the King into believing that this was simply a fortified church.
I came across a paper article that mentioned that there are two tunnels inside the fort. One which leads to the island of Erumathivu - approximately 2 1/2 Kms away and another that leads to the Dutch church approximately 500 meters away. Unfortunately, we were not able to see this for ourselves. This article describes the fort in more detail and has pictures of the tunnels - http://lankadeepa.lk/index.php/articles/24074
While fast gaining a reputation as a destination for leisure with a number of resorts coming up in the area and the many attractions such as whale and dolphin watching, water based adventure sports, etc; one should not forget that this place also has a lot of history. The old Dutch church and the Dutch fort are two of the remnants of a time that has passed by. In this article, we bring you a glimpse of the Dutch fort at Kalpitiya.
The present fort was built in the year 1667 on the site where the Portuguese had a stockade and a Jesuit chapel. Despite the fact that this fort has not undergone restoration like the Galle and Jaffna forts, it is still in a reasonably good condition with the ramparts and the structures of the buildings inside clearly visible.
There is a curious story explaining the arch at the entrance to the fort which looks very much like an archway to the entrance of a church. The legend is that the King of Kandy had granted permission only to build a church here and that the Dutch had built this arch to mislead the King into believing that this was simply a fortified church.
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| The "church-like" arch at the entrance to the fort |
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