F ORT • VOLUME 45 • 2017

The Fortress of Colombo: from the

Portuguese and Dutch to the British
Chryshane Mendis
Abstract
Colombo has been the principal commercial port of Sri
Lanka since the fifteenth century. Successive European
powers, commencing with the Portuguese in 1518,
fortified the harbor against both colonial rivals and the
kingdoms of the interior. By the last quarter of the
sixteenth century Colombo was a fortified city with up to
60,000 inhabitants enclosed within a bastioned enceinte.
Following its capture by the Dutch in 1656 the defences of
Colombo were entirely rebuilt creating a military quarter
in the west and an open civil settlement in the east.
Following the transfer to British rule in the early
nineteenth century the Dutch defences continued in use
largely unmodified until the middle of the century by
which date they were redundant.

Key words: Sri Lanka, Portuguese and Dutch fortification.

Introduction
Colombo, located on the western coast of the island of Sri
Lanka is home to the island’s main harbour and
commercial capital. The harbour of Kolon Thota as it was
known in Sinhala is recorded in ancient literature and was
once home to Arab traders before the arrival of the
Europeans. By the fifteenth century the island was divided
into three main kingdoms, the kingdoms of Kotte and
Kandy which were the main Sinhalese kingdoms covering
most of the island and with the Northern part of the island
under an independent Tamil kingdom.
From the fifteenth century onwards the harbour of
Colombo became the principal port of the country due to
its proximity to the capital city of Kotte. The Portuguese
arrived in the sixteenth century and made Colombo their
main settlement with the blessings of the King of Kotte.
Over time they established one the largest fortified cities
in the island at the time. The Portuguese expansion into
the coastal territories of the island brought them into
conflict with the other native kingdoms and as a result in
the mid-seventeenth century they were ousted with the
Figure 1 Sri Lanka (Sarasavi Atlas)
support of the Dutch. In turn the Dutch themselves
occupied Colombo establishing their fort and city which
served as their centre of administration. The British
subsequently occupied the Dutch territories, and
continued to maintain the Dutch fortifications until the
mid-nineteenth century when they were demolished to
facilitate the commercial expansion of the city.
The ancient harbour of Colombo was distinguished by a
rocky arm stretching into the sea northwards which was
known as the harbour arm or the Hook of Colombo and
behind this was a hill covered by coconut trees, to the east
of Colombo was a ridge of hills. A small river, a flood
outlet of the Kaleni River flowing behind the ridge,
through a gap between two hills flowed into the sea
cutting the harbour in two.1 At the beginning of sixteenth

56

century the store houses of the King of Kotte lay at the
mouth of the river surrounded by a Moorish town.
The Portuguese Fort
The first Portuguese fort - 1518
The Portuguese arrived at Colombo in 1505 under the
command of Dom Lourenço de Almeida and entered into
a trade agreement with the King of Kotte under which the
King would allow the Portuguese 400 bales of cinnamon a
year, on condition that they protected his ports from
foreign threats.2 The Portuguese then erected a small
factory on the isthmus jutting out to the sea known as the
Hook of Colombo and leaving a few men behind they set
sail. By 1507 news had reached Portugal of the success in
establishing a trade agreement with Ceylon and King
Manuel, realizing the central position of Ceylon,
instructed that a fortress be erected there.3 Because of
ongoing wars in India it was not until 1518 that the
Portuguese were able to devote any resources to
establishing a permanent settlement in Sri Lanka. Lopo
Soares de Albergaria, Viceroy of Poruguese India from
1515, was under strict orders to erect a fort in Colombo
and on 10 September 1518 he set sail with a fleet of seven
galleys, ten fustas and several vessels laden with materials
for the construction of a fort.4 The Portuguese, after
receiving the permission of the King of Kotte, began to
erect the fort on the site of the factory on the rocky
headland which they called the Point of St. Lawrence. The
Moors of the old town, angered by the King’s decision to
relocate them from Colombo at the insistence of the
Portuguese, tried to stop the construction by force at
Figure 2 A view of Colombo harbour in 1518 showing the fort
of “Our Lady of Victories” located on the Hook of Colombo
(Land Maps & Surveys Vol. II)
57
T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO
which the Portuguese engaged them and drove the angry
mob away, and hurriedly built a stockade out of mud. In
1519 Lopo de Brito came as Captain of Colombo and re-
erected a triangular shaped fort of stone and mortar. This
fort was called “Our Lady of Victories” by Father
Queyroz, and also as “St. Barbara” by Barros and De
Couto. The fort had a garrison of 100 men besides work
people and provisions for its maintenance were supplied
by the King.5 Within a short time Portuguese arrogance
soon led to an armed conflict and a Sinhalese army,
unsuccessfully, besieged the fort. In 1524 the Portuguese
dismantled the fort for strategic reasons but a small town
soon grew in its place with a church (St. Lawrence) and a
house of Franciscans.
The Fortified Town - 1554
In 1521 the Kingdom of Kotte was divided into the
Kingdoms of Kotte, Sitavaka and Raigama. In the period
after dismantling the small fort, the Portuguese resided in
the capital city of Kotte and assisted the new King
Buveneka Bahu VII in defending his kingdom from his
ambitious brother King Mayadunne of Sitavaka. Upon the
death of King Buveneka Bahu VII of Kotte the Portuguese
re-established themselves in Colombo and erected a proper
fort in 1554, which comprised part of the land now known
as Colombo Fort. This was in effect a fortified town which
included the Captain’s house with two halls, houses of
officials, two churches and some private houses and was
said to have been surrounded by a rampart and bastions.6
This fort was sufficiently strong to repel an intermittent ten
year siege by the Sitavaka Kingdom which was by this
time in an almost constant state of war with Kotte.
The Fortified City - 1565
In 1565 as a result of the repeated attacks on the city of
Kotte by the armies of Sitavaka under Prince Rajasinghe,
the Portuguese abandoned the city of Kotte. King
Dharmapala, the grandson of Buveneka Bahu, now a
vassal of the Portuguese along with the population of the
city of Kotte were transferred to Colombo which, because
of its maritime location, could be better defended. With
the influx of settlers the town was enlarged and extended
from the coast in the west to the 5th Cross Street in
modern Pettah, thus laying the geographical foundation
for the modern Colombo fort area and Pettah.
This fortified city formed the main Portuguese
administrative centre controlling much of the coastal area
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS
of the island until its fall to the Dutch ninety-one years
later in 1656.
Within the city the garrison, Portuguese settlers,
tradesmen of various races and clergy produced a
population estimated in the 1580s as 30,000 to 60,000;
concerning the buildings there were two parishes within
the city and five convents. Apart from the many religious
buildings there was the jail, customs house, the town hall,
a hospital and even a powder factory.7
The Portuguese defences of the city utilised the natural
features of the land to add to the strength of the defences.
The city was nearly encircled by a rampart with over a
dozen bastions which changed over the course of its
history and with no ramparts along the western coast as
the large rocks along it afforded a natural defence. Further
the city was protected by a large lake; this was constructed
by the Portuguese by damming the natural stream that
flowed into the harbour. This large lake protected the city
from the south to the northeast giving additional
protection to the ramparts; this lake is the present Beira
Lake. Apart from the lake, there were two moats dug along
the sections of the southwestern and northeastern ramparts
which the lake did not cover. There were two principle
entrances to the city, the Queens Gate along the eastern
ramparts from which led the road running to the interior of
58
the country, and the Mapane gate on the south from which
led the road going along the coast to the south. In addition
there were two minor entrances as well. The armament
varied over time and towards the end of the Portuguese
rule its artillery consisted of 237 pieces of three kinds
firing shot of between 10 pounds and 38 pounds.8
The number of bastions varied over time, in 1587
during the great siege by King Rajasinghe I of the Sitavaka
Kingdom the fort was protected by twelve bastions and
eight watch towers and managed to survive this great
assault despite the lake being drained. At the beginning of
the seventeenth century Portuguese records state that the
fort lacked bastions and the ramparts were in a ruinous
condition but seemed to have been rebuilt by the 1630s
and by the end of the Portuguese rule consisted of fourteen
bastions. On the Hook of Colombo, the rocky headland
jutting out into the harbor, was the breastwork of Santa
Cruz protecting the harbour and which mounted the
heaviest kind of artillery. Going anticlockwise from the
breastwork no wall ran along the western coast due to the
rocks which afford a natural protection and along this
stretch behind the church of St. Lawrence was the bastion
of S. Lawrence commanding the sea, the next bastion was
that of S. Augustine and from here began the wall which
ran to the great bastion of S. Jago which commanded the
Figure 3 Portuguese
fort of Colombo
(Comprehensive
Atlas of the Dutch
United East India
Company Vol.
IV)(National
Archives/Charles
Blackwood)

Mapane gate. From here the wall ran to the bastion of S.
Antonio also called S. Gregorio which commanded the
Mapane plain, then to the bastion of S. Jeronimo which
guarded the lake – these three bastions were protected by
a moat. A low wall ran side by side with the lake till it
reached the bastion of the Conception, also known as
Hieronymo, at the end of the lake. Then running along the
eastern ramparts was the bastion of Madre de Deus named
after the church of the Mother of God nearby and beyond
this was the Queens Gate from which was the road leading
to Kotte and Sithavaka. From this the wall ran to the
bastion of S. Sebastiao also called S. Philip and then to S.
Estevao and from there to the great bastion of S. Joao
which was an old fashioned eight sided one and which was
120 paces from the sea and a gate with a draw bridge, from
this ran a strong stockade of pointed stakes along the shore
as far as the sea. A moat which started at the foot of the
bastion of S. Sebastiao ran along the ramparts and ended
at S. Joao. On the harbour stretch ran a mud wall 20 spans
in height passing through the couraca of Francis Xavier
and the redoubt of the Martriz, the bastion of Customs
House or Alfandega and ending at the breastwork of Santa
Cruz.9 Analysis of maps of the city during the Dutch siege
shows that some bastions were based on the distinctive
angled bastions whereas certain bastions were square
shaped. Also the Portuguese historian Ribeiro, an
eyewitness to the last siege mentions the existence of
casemates as well.
Fall of the Portuguese Fort
By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Kingdom
of Kandy or Kanda Uda Rata was the only independent
kingdom in the island and in 1638 King Rajasinghe II of
Kandy entered into a treaty with the Dutch East India
Company to rid the island of the Portuguese who by this
time controlled much of the coastal regions of the country.
The Kandyans together with the Dutch conquered
Portuguese settlements and by October 1655 only
Colombo and Jaffna remained in Portuguese control. On
14 October 1655 the Dutch and Kandyans laid siege to
Colombo. The siege lasted for seven months with
continuous land and naval bombardment. The Portuguese
were cut off from all supplies and surrendered on 12 May
1656.10 The Dutch immediately broke their agreement
with King Rajasinghe II and prevented the Sinhalese
forces from entering the city taking it as their prize for
they too knew the importance of Colombo.
59
T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO
The Dutch Fort
After taking control of Colombo the Dutch demolished the
Portuguese city and dividing it into two, focusing their
main fortifications to the west of the stream that had
traversed the Portuguese city and on the east they built
their residential quarters, thus giving the present outline of
the Colombo Fort and Pettah. The main fort on the west
was known as the Casteel and the residential area to the
east called the Oude Stad or Old City.
Fortifications of the Oude Stad
The residential area of the Dutch city was initially
protected by ramparts built along the lines of the
Portuguese fortifications soon after its capture. By 1663 the
work on the outer fortifications was nearly completed and
in a good state of defense.11 From north clockwise there
were the bastions of Sandenburg, Victoria, Constantia,
Concordia, Haerlem, Dardrecht, and Schidam.12 The city
had three gates, one the Delfsche Port which led to the
Casteel, a second that led towards the sea not far from that
and third the Port-Victoria or Negombo near the bastion of
the same name from which runs the road to Negombo. In
the 1680s it was decided that the fort proper or the Casteel
would serve the company’s purpose and in the 1690s the
outer fortifications were razed to the ground. Further for
the protection of the Oude Stad the streets were designed
on a grid system making it easier for troops to retire if the
outer defences were penetrated. In addition the streets
could be swept by the guns of the Casteel.13
The Casteel.
The Dutch Casteel was a pure military fort unlike that of
the Portuguese which was a fortified city. Ringed by nine
bastions in the fort proper and two gun batteries on the
harbour arm, this was the most powerful fortress in the
island. The fort had all the contemporary components of a
strong fort with bastions, ravelins, curtains, a wet ditch,
postern gates, glacis etc. placed using the natural features
of the land to their advantage. The armament of the fort
consisted of more than a 100 guns in the fort and 52 in the
outer works. Initially the bastions and ramparts were built
of kabook14 plastered over but later rebuilt of proper lime
and stone sometime after 1751.15 All the main features of
the fort were completed by the 1680s with few additions
and modifications in the subsequent years.
Only the highest officials of the Dutch East India
Company were allowed to reside within the fort and all
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS
others, without distinction, were denied residence. Within
the fort were the Governor’s quarters, residences of other
officials, the garrison, a hospital (which is still preserved
to this day), an imposing Dutch church and various other
offices of the company.
The bastions were named after cities and towns in the
Netherlands. Starting in the north the powerful Leyden
bastion, overlooking the harbour, mounted approximately
thirty-two guns16 in two tiers. The next bastion (moving
clockwise) was the Delft bastion. This bastion had a
complement of around eleven guns and covered the
entrance to the Casteel. Between this and the next bastion
was the curtain with the main gate to the city, called the
Delft port or gate, from here ran the road across the moat
to the city. Next came the Hoorn bastion, which had a
similar number of guns and from here the rampart ran to
the Rotterdam bastion the next most powerful bastion after
the Leyden with a complement of approximately thirty-
one guns. Next facing the Galle esplanade was the large
Middleburg bastion which commanded the open plain and
the approach to the southern entrance. The Klippenburg
bastion through which ran another entrance to the Casteel,
the Porte de Gala (the Galle or South gate) came next.
Adjoining to this was the small Enkhuysen bastion and
followed by the Dan Briel bastion situated on a hill. From
here the rampart ran to the Amsterdam bastion. Beyond
the Amsterdam bastion ran two lines of warehouses along
the isthmus of the harbour arm ending with two gun
batteries, the Battenberg and Water-pass batteries built on
60
Figure 4 Dutch Casteel
of Colombo 1756
(Comprehensive Atlas of
the Dutch United East
India Company Vol. IV)
the site of the old Portuguese breastwork of Santa Cruz.
The barrel roofed warehouses or Pakhuizen were used
to store varieties of meat, supplies of butter and cheese etc.
and on the eastern shore line stood the jetty, a boat
building yard and a wind mill.17 This was the commercial
area of the fort where all the trading took place. These
warehouses played a dual purpose, serving as
fortifications linking the fort proper to the gun batteries
where the walls were built in a way to withstand
bombardment. Here amongst the warehouses lay the third
main gate of the fort, the Water gate.
In addition to the three principle entrances - the Delft
gate in east, the Galle gate in the south and the Water gate
to the harbor - there were two postern gates. One, the
Rotterdam gate, was situated beside the Rotterdam bastion
on the southeast of the circuit and provided access to the
canal which was constructed inside the fort. The other
postern gate, the Slave port, situated on the western
ramparts between the bastions Dan Briel and Amsterdam,
gave access to the Kafirs field. Kafir’s field was the open
beach from Enkhuysen bastion to Battenburg battery
where the slaves of the Company were kept until the mid-
eighteenth century after which date they were transferred
to a peninsula in the lake outside the fort. Maps of the
1680s and early 1690s18 show a third postern gate between
the bastions of Enkhuysen and Dan Briel but this appears
to have been sealed off by the late 1690s.
The Dutch constructed two ravelins along the eastern
defences. The first was constructed in 169419 between the

bastions of Rotterdam bastion and Hoorn bastion which
had a powder mill installed on it. The second was built in
1784 between Hoorn bastion and Delft bastion20 in front
of the main entrance and was called the east ravelin.
The Dutch fort was also protected by a wet ditch and the
lake. The wet ditch which protected the fort from the
Middleburg bastion in the south to the Leyden bastion in
the north was only constructed between the years 1692 -
169721 using the natural stream that flowed through there
from the lake. Beyond the wet ditch was the glacis which
was in turn protected by the lake. A marsh called Buffalos
field lay between the residential area and the fort. It was
designed to be flooded by opening a sluice thus providing
an additional defence to the fort on the landward side.
Another interesting feature of the fort is that construction
of two inner canals entering from the Rotterdam gate.
From 1785 to 1796 a series of new project plans for the
improvements of the Colombo Fort were drawn up
following the fourth Anglo-Dutch22 war but were not
carried out and in 1796 the Dutch fort of Colombo fell into
the hands of the British East India Company.
Fall of Colombo fort to the British
In 1795, following the French occupation of the Dutch
Republic, guardianship of the Dutch overseas
possessions fell to the hands of the British; and on 16
February 1796 the Fort of Colombo capitulated to the
British. The final strength of the garrison after the
defection of the De Meuron regiment and after the
evacuation of Galle consisted in February 1796 of 1,953
infantry, made up of 584 Europeans, 772 Malays, 462
Sepoys and 135 Moors, and 378 artillerymen.23 Colombo
fort and all Dutch possessions were permanently retained
in British possession following the Peace of Amiens on
25 March 1802.
Modifications under the British and
demolition
The only alterations the British made to the fortifications
were to raise the bastions24 and erect a ravelin between
Middleburg and Rotterdam bastions. However, in 1864 a
proposal was made to expand the fort to the east - a map
of 186425 suggests the demolition of the eastern
fortifications and their expansion up to the end of Buffalos
field. But this plan seems to have been dropped as the
proceedings of the Legislative Council during the session
of 1866, under contents No. 13 “Military expenditure”, a
61
T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO
dispatch from Governor Sir H. Robinson to the Earl of
Carnavon dated 13 December 1866 details26 a scheme by
the Royal Engineer Colonel Robert Laffan for the
demolition of the fortifications to render space for
commercial purpose, the proceeds of which would be used
for other military improvements. On 29 December 1869
the demolition of the walls of the Colombo fort was
commenced by blowing up the Rotterdam bastion and by
February 1871 the walls had been removed and the moat
filled up by the military authorities.27
Colombo functioned as the main administrative centre
of the British as it had for their predecessors the Dutch
and, when the entire island came under the British crown
in 1815, Colombo was made the new capital of the colony
of Ceylon as Sri Lanka was then known. With the
demolition of the fortifications, the city expanded
gradually into the metropolis it is today with the harbour
of Colombo being the main harbour of the country and an
important port in the region. The present area known as
Colombo Fort and the Pettah maintain the Dutch legacy in
their topographic outline with most of the streets
maintaining their form as it was in the time of the Dutch.
The Colombo Fort area maintains its grandeur with
elegant buildings of the British and Dutch eras but the
residential area of the Dutch Old city which forms the
modern Pettah has completely transformed into a busy
commercial centre.
The remains of Colombo fort
Interestingly certain sections of the Dutch fort, mainly on
the western side, survived the demolition but had been
forgotten over time with many features lost. A thorough
survey conducted by the writer from 2015 had identified
seven locations where the remains of the fort survive, most
of which have not been previously identified by the
Department of Archaeology. An account from the 1930s
by W. A. Nelson28 (former member of the FSG) had
identified several locations but no further survey had been
carried out. Only two locations were known and the
remainder were identified by the writer.
The seven surviving sections of the defences are as
follows (the numbers refer to locations shown on Figure
6):
1 - Remains of Battenberg battery inside the harbour
2 - Old warehouse Pakhuizen, now the Maritime
Museum, left of Commissariat Street
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS

Figure 5 The Dutch fort 1806 during the British period

(National Archives, Sri Lanka)

3 - Dan Briel bastion, in the Navy Head Quarters

4 - Remains of the wall south of Dan Briel, in the
Junior Police Offices Mess premises
5 - Remains of the wall north of Dan Briel, in the Navy
Head Quarters
6 - Postern Gate or the Slave port, in the Navy Head
Quarters
7 - The Delft Gate, in the Commercial Bank premises
on Bristol Street

Figure 6 Location of the remains of the Colombo fort in the
present day (Author/Charles Blackwood)
Battenberg Battery
The Battenberg Battery was the only part of the Dutch
fortifications which continued in use after 1871. This
battery served as one of the four coastal gun batteries of the
British protecting the Colombo city and harbor. It mounted

62
 T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO

Figure 7 Location of Battenburg battery in the harbour (Author, 2015)

British 6 inch breech loading coastal artillery and operated
up until the Second World War. During a field survey
carried out in 2014 by the writer it was observed that most
of it has been destroyed and only a seawards wall of about
50 metres in length survives. Its foundations are of large
stone and the body is comprised of a brick and kabook mix
with original plaster still attached in some places.
Old warehouse Pakhuizen – now the Maritime Museum
This was one of the warehouses which connected

Figure 8 Remains of Battenburg battery (Author, 2015)

63
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS

Figure 9 Dutch warehouse, now the Maritime Museum (Author, 2015)

Figure 10 Remains of the front of Dan Briel bastion inside the Navy HQ (Author, 2016)

64

Figure 11 Remains of the rampart between Enkhuysen bastion and Dan Briel bastion (Author, 2016)
Amsterdam bastion to Battenberg battery on the hook.
This is situated on Commissariat Street and now houses
the Maritime Museum. The distinctive Dutch double
barrel vault roof is still preserved and is in a good state of
preservation.
Dan Briel Bastion
The remains of this bastion can be found in the grounds of
the Sri Lanka Navy Head Quarters. On top of this bastion
formerly stood the old lighthouse and the flag staff. It is
currently occupied by the office of the Commander of the
Navy. This bastion had been built upon a natural hill and
it still retains its two flanks but the apex of the bastion had
been removed sometime before the twentieth century. The
remains of this bastion were traced from an old
photograph of it taken in the 1970s which showed it to be
in the current Navy Headquarters. In 2015 permission was
granted by the Navy to enter the headquarters to undertake
a survey. During the survey it was observed by the writer
that considerable changes have been made to the structure
65
T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO
including the sealing of four cannons to the walls with
their barrels protruding out. The foundations are on
extremely large boulders which would have formed part of
the hill and the masonry includes limestone, brick and
kabook, plastered in certain places with modern cement
and concrete.
Rampart south of Dan Briel bastion
Part of the rampart from Enkhuysen bastion to Dan Briel
bastion was found behind the Junior Police Officers Mess
building. The remains are in a good state of preservation
and recent plastering could be seen. The section survived
for a length of about 40 metres and is on the edge of the
Navy Head Quarters. The probable location was identified
through superimposing a map of the Dutch fort in the
present setting.
Rampart adjoining Dan Briel bastion
Part of the rampart wall was observed running north from
Dan Briel bastion to the Postern gate and a little beyond
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS
Figure 12 Remains of the rampart north of Dan Briel bastion inside the Navy HQ (Author, 2016)
that. The remains were in a ruinous condition with modern
walls built upon them in certain places. The section from
Dan Briel to the Postern gate is about 30 metres long and
about 1.25 metres in height. It had been constructed of a
mix of stone and kabook masonry.
The section from the Postern gate towards the harbour
is about 20 metres long with a varying height of about
1.5m. This section too is in a ruinous condition and had
large trees growing on top of it. This part mainly consisted
of kabook masonry.
Postern Gate
This gate was located between Dan Briel and Amsterdam
bastions and was known as the Slave Porte as it led to the
Kaffirs field, the open seashore where the slaves of the
Dutch East India Company were housed. This too is inside
the Navy headquarters and was situated on Flag Staff
Street. The opening has been sealed off and is in a very
bad state with large trees growing on it. It has the date
66
1676 which is barely visible; this and the sections of the
ramparts were identified through the survey carried out
within the Navy Headquarters.
The Delft Gate
The Delft gate, formerly the main entrance to the fort, is
situated in the Commercial Bank premises down Bristol
Street. The remains of this gate came to light during the
excavations of the foundations of the Commercial Bank
building in 198529 and now the arch way has been restored
and is opened to the public. The entrance passage of the
Delft gate was designed on an angle which prevented
direct fire into the fort from the outside and the present
remains are the interior inner section of the gateway with
the angle pathway visible.
The only remains currently accessible to the public are
the Delft gateway and the Maritime Museum. Of the
others, the Battenberg battery is situated inside the harbour
and permission is required to gain access to it. The ruins
 T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO

Figure 13 Remains of the rampart north of Dan Briel bastion inside the Navy HQ (Minol Peiris, 2016)

found within the Navy headquarters too require permission He is an author of three research papers and through his
to which the writer obtained in August 2015 and with the independent research on the ‘Colombo Fort’ was invited to
enthusiastic support given by the Navy was able to do field deliver two public lectures on the same topic in June 2016
survey of the ruins; but much is needed to explore and a and April 2017.
proper scientific survey is needed to be carried out in order
to assess the damage done to the ruins and their eventual Notes
conservation, a programme of which is being developed 1. Perera, Fr.S.G. (1926) p.4
2. Pieris, P.E. (1913) p.40
with the support of the writer and other authorities.
3. Ibid, p.42
4. Ibid, p.47
Biographical Note 5. Ibid
Chryshane Mendis is an old boy of St. Joseph’s College 6. Perera, Fr.S.G. (1926) p.12
7. Pieris, P.E. (1913)
Colombo 10 completing Advance Levels in 2013. He is 8. Pieris, P.E. (1909) p.127
currently an undergraduate of the Aquinas University 9. The descriptions of the fortifications are derived from the maps in
College reading for his bachelor’s degree in Humanities. Land Maps & Surveys Vol. II and Ribeiro's History of Ceilao.
10.
His ambition is to become an archaeologist with special Pieris, P.E. (1914)
11. Reimers, E. (1932) Memoir of Ryckloff Van Goens, 48. (Dutch
interests in the field of colonial warfare. At the age of
Governor)
nineteen, he became a member of the National Trust Sri 12. Diessen, R.V. & Nelemans, B., 2008, 60.
Lanka, Archaeological Society of Sri Lanka and Young 13. Ibid, 58.
14. Kabook is the Sinhalese word for laterite which was a common
Zoologists Association. In addition, he is a student
construction material during the colonial period in Sri Lanka.
member of the Royal Asiatic Society, a founding member 15. Memoir of J S Van Gollenesse states that he identified the problem
and current council member of the Kotte Heritage but could not execute it. Therefore probably done after 1751.
Foundation and member of the Fortress Study Group UK. 16. Calculated based on the embrasures marked in the 1697 map COL-7

67
C HRYSHANE M ENDIS

Figure 14
Remains of
the Slave
porte, the
postern gate
between
Dan Briel
bastion and
Amsterdam
bastion
inside the
Navy HQ
(Minol
Peiris, 2016)

Figure 15
Remains of
the Delft
gateway
inside the
Commercial
Bank
premises
(Author,
2016)

68
 T HE F ORTRESS OF C OLOMBO

17. Brohier, R.L. (1984)
18. Diessen, R.V. & Nelemans, B. (2008)
19.
Ibid, p.67
20. Ibid, p.81
21. Ibid, pp.64-65
22. Ibid, pp.81-105
23.
Reimers, E., (1926)
24. Brohier, R.L. (1984)
25. Map COL-18, National Archives
26. Government, 1867 – National Archives
27. Bingham, P.M. (1921) p.xvi
28.
Nelson, W.A. (2004) p.28 (original publication 1984)
29. Ibid, p.31d
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69