Galle is the capital city of the Southern Province and is a beautiful city with a colorful history. It has an old world colonial charm mixed with modern amenities. Galle was the earliest European administrative center in Sri Lanka and a major port, and the largest city for more than a century. It lost the distinction after the British began to develop Colombo as the capital. Today it takes center stage for tourists visiting the southern coastal belt, providing star class accommodation, fine dining, historical sites and most importantly easy access to sun drenched golden beaches.
The history of the city may stretch over 2 millennia. There is speculation that the city may have been a port of call for merchants from Arabia and the Middle East trading in cinnamon as early as 1400 BC. In later years merchants from Persia, Arabia, Greece, the Roman Empire and India were doing business through Galle. All of this is thanks to the bay which acts as a natural harbor for ships. Today it is developed into a fully functional port. In 1505, a Portuguese ship was driven there by a storm and when the people of the city refused them entry they took it by force. However in 1640 the Portuguese had to surrender it to the Dutch East India Company. They were the ones who built the present fort, with a fortified wall built of solid granite. After the British took over in 1796 they preserved the Fort, but shifted their attention towards Colombo.
The Fort itself is built in a small peninsula jutting out to the Indian Ocean. It was first built by the Portuguese and later fortified by the Dutch. It is really a walled city, with a rectangular pattern of streets full of the low Dutch colonial style houses with gables and verandahs. Current inhabitants of the houses are the descendants of the Muslim traders. Although it is not permitted to alter any of these houses, some renovation is taking place and private museums with handicraft shops have even been established. The Fort covers an area of 36 hectares and encloses many interesting sites within it. These include, several museums, a clock tower, churches, mosques, a lighthouse and several hundred private dwellings. Tellingly, there are no major Buddhist temples within the walls. Even though the Dutch may have left the city for more than two centuries, their cultural and social influence remains still visible.
One of the most interesting sites within the fort not to be missed is the National Maritime Museum. It is housed within a colonial Dutch ware house and displays all the flora and fauna of the sea. It also shows coral beds, sea grass beds and deep sea fishes, traditional methods of fishing and etc. Finally, one leaves the museum seeing the causes of sea pollution, coast erosion and methods used to combat these problems.
The old Dutch Reform Church or the Groot Kerk on Church street was built by a governor of Galle, Capar de Jung in 1754. It contains records of marriages from 1748 and baptism from 1678. A significant feature of this church is that there are pillars on the inside of the church and the roof is supported only by the walls. Further south along Church Street there is a Catholic Church built by the British in 1868. In the southernmost point there is Muslim community with a Madrasa and two Mosques, the most impressive of which is the Meera Masjid.
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