Galle Fort

The old Dutch Quarter at Galle Fort is Sri Lanka's best-preserved colonial township. Surrounding the quietly decaying colonial villas, decrepit buildings and quaint churches set along quiet streets are huge, thick walls and bastions that successfully protected the town from both foreign invasion over the years and modernisation today.

While it was the Portuguese who originally built a small fort at Galle in 1588-89, the Dutch captured the town in 1640 and greatly expanded the Portuguese fortifications to immense proportions in 1663, most of which stands today. They extended the walls, adding many more bastions and lookouts and made it into an impregnable fortress flanked on three sides by the ocean. The British, who quietly took Galle in 1796, later added the iconic lighthouse, clock tower and Main Gate.

While the European influence on Galle Fort, which brought such things as a sophisticated subterranean sewer system, was far advanced in Sri Lanka for its time, it is now a place where time simply stands still. It has great architectural charm and the main pleasure for the visitor is wandering around the narrow streets and atop the great ramparts historically imagining Galle as the bustling port that it used to be. The highlight is watching the bright pink sunset over the multi-layered red rooftops and out to sea. Galle Fort was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.