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Resplendent Galle



The ramparts which protected the Galle Fort is still to be seen


Galle Light House


Butterfly Bridge

Galle is a very old town. It has a longer history than that of Kandy or Colombo. Galle is mentioned in the Kokila Sandesa, a poem written in Sinhala in the 15th century.It has a beautiful natural harbour. As it is situated midway in the Indian Ocean, Arab , Chinese and South Indian traders came in their ships to Galle centuries ago to exchange their goods. An old stone inscription in three languages - Persian Chinese and Tamil - was found in Galle.


Entrance to the Galle Fort


VOC emblem carved above the entrance


Galle Harbour

The Portuguese came to Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 16th century. They first landed in Galle and settled down there. They built a small fort in 1588. The Dutch came in 1640 and made Galle their headquarters. They pulled down the fort the Portuguese had built and put up a huge fort that stands to this day. We know exactly how old this fort is. The year 1661 is carved on the emblem above the entrance to the Fort. The three letters VOC stand for Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. They are Dutch words meaning Dutch East India Company.

The Dutch had their homes in the Fort. Road names such as Leyn Baan have come down from Dutch times. Now too there are residences, a school, a hotel and a church and many shops.The ramparts (walls of the fort) give Galle her special look. No other town in Sri Lanka has anything like this. It is a tourist attraction. Galle residents enjoy taking a walk along the ramparts in the evening. So do locals visiting Galle for the first time.

A fort always has a moat around it. The Galle fort had a moat only on one side. The sea was a natural moat on the other sides. The moat was filled and levelled a long time ago. It is now Galle's esplanade. It was once a football field.

It is now the venue for national and international cricket matches. People sit on the ramparts and watch the matches.The Butterfly Bridge over the Dutch canal is one of Galle's landmarks. It is called Moda Ela - Foolish Bridge. Why I do not know. Readers in Galle schools are sure to know. There is a statue of Anagarika Dharmapala near the bridge, facing the railway station. Before the Colombo harbour was built, Galle was the main port of call for ships.

The ship that brought Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to Sri Lanka berthed in the Galle harbour on May 18, 1880. He became a Buddhist - reciting the Tun Sarana and promising to observe the first precepts - at the Wijayananda Pirivena in Weliwatta, Galle, the day after he landed in Galle.The lighthouse is another landmark in Galle. The first light house built in Lanka was built in Galle.

What we see today is not the former lighthouse. It was a wooden house burnt down in 1930. The present one was built on the same spot. The clock tower on the ramparts is yet another landmark. It was built in the late 1870s.Galle has many schools. Some of them were started by Christian missionaries in the second half of the 19th century.

Mahinda College was started by Buddhist philanthropists after Col. Olcott arrived.

The only school I know that is named in honour of him Olcott College is in Galle.Although Galle is by the sea there are hillocks here and there in Galle and schools have been built on them - Rippon and Richmond, Mahinda and Aloysius, the last on a hillock within sight of the sea.

The distance from Colombo to Galle is 72 miles (106 km) and the town is connected to Colombo and Matara by road and railway. Galle is the fourth largest town in Sri Lanka.

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