Dutch Fortifications

Galle stands on a small rocky promontory on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, beside a sheltered bay. The ICOMOS evaluation prepared for UNESCO notes that the bay was mentioned as early as 545 by Cosmas Indicopleustes, and that it was the principal port of the island when Ibn Battuta landed there in 1344.

Portuguese navigators settled at Galle in 1505. At the end of the 16th century they built a rampart and three bastions to defend the peninsula on its northern, landward side. The seaward side was not fortified. The Galle Heritage Foundation records that their fortress was called Santa Cruz. It was developed further by the Dutch after 1640 and survives as the Black Fort, which the Foundation describes as the oldest surviving construction in the fort.

The Dutch came to the island through an alliance. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that in 1638 King Rajasinha II of Kandy concluded a treaty with a Dutch admiral. The Dutch were to help him against the Portuguese and received a monopoly on most of the island's cinnamon. In March 1640 Galle was taken. The Dutch acted through the Dutch East India Company, known as the VOC, a trading company established in 1602.

Britannica dates Dutch rule in Sri Lanka from 1658, when the last Portuguese strongholds fell, to 1796. The country was divided into three administrative divisions named after their principal cities, Colombo, Galle and Jaffna. The governor resided in Colombo, and Galle was ruled by a commander. The Central Cultural Fund describes Galle as the principal Dutch stronghold on the island.

ICOMOS relates that the Dutch decided to replace the Portuguese defences, which were partly made of palisades and earth banks. They encircled the whole peninsula with a bastioned stone wall to hold it against the fleets of rival European powers. The fortified town has an area of 52 hectares inside walls defended by 14 bastions. The majority of the curtain walls were built in 1663. The northern gate, protected by a drawbridge and a ditch, bears the date 1669, and a sea wall was finished in 1729.

UNESCO points out that the ramparts do not conform precisely to typical European geometric plans. They follow the rock outcrops of the promontory, with bastions at strategic points on the seaward and landward sides. Coral is frequently used along with granite in the walls, and the measurements of the ground layout conform to regional units.

During the 18th century the town reached its full development. ICOMOS records that it housed 500 families and a large number of public offices, trade establishments and warehouses. Much of it was laid out on a regular grid adapted to the terrain. The commandant's residence, the arsenal and the powder house were prominent, and there were a forge and carpentry and rope-making workshops. A Protestant church was built for the European residents.

The streets are lined with houses, each with its own garden and an open veranda supported by columns. UNESCO describes this architecture as European in its basic design and adapted by local craftspeople to local conditions. A drainage system of the 17th century, flushed by tidal sea water, is still in use. Britannica lists the exports of the Dutch period, among them cinnamon and other spices, gemstones, pearls, coconut oil and ropes of coconut fibre.

The fort was handed over to the British on 23 February 1796, one week after the surrender of Colombo, and Galle remained the administrative centre of the south. ICOMOS lists the changes that followed: ditches were filled in, a gate was opened between the Moon bastion and the Sun bastion, a lighthouse was installed on the Utrecht bastion, and a tower was erected in 1883. Taken together, it found, these have not seriously modified the original city plan.

The Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988. The fortifications and some public buildings are owned by the Department of Archaeology, while most houses remain private property. The Galle Heritage Foundation was created in 1994 under an Act of Parliament to bring those responsible for the site together. UNESCO describes Galle as a living city that keeps its residential and administrative uses.