Galle heritage - The Fort
The Galle fort is a world
heritage site, which contains great buildings and constructions Galle is
one that has impressive and irreplaceable number of heritage sites and the only
living old city
Galle remains the best
example of a fortified city built by Europeans in South and South-East Asia the
present district of Galle formed a part of the ancient kingdom of Ruhunu Rata this district
covers 1635 sq km and population
over 1.03 million.
History
According to the
Bible, king Soloman obtained ivory, peacock and monkeys from a trade centre, named 'Targuish in
1859 Emerson Tenant said Galle was the most prominent International Trade centre known to all over the world and
he implies that this was the trade centre which describes in the Bible as
' Targuish because
of the location of this natural harbor it gained prominence as an important
trading centre it was frequented by traders
both from the east and the west of the world the history of the Galle harbour is the history of Galle, too the
port was in use in Pre-Christian times, but gained in importance after 12 th century by
the I e century it was arguably the most important port in the country retained
this position until 1877 AD when an artificial harbor was built in Colombo among the Asian ports of the
United Dutch East India Company (Verinigde Oost Indische Compagnie or VOC), Galle was
second only to Batavia (now Jakarta) when Ptolemy made the map of Ceylon in 139
AD he indicated Galle as “Cetum Proments“ earlier Galle was known as the
palace of the Rakshasa king Rawana south of the Galle harbor one will find mount Roomassala, the history of Roomassala, runs as far as the king Ravana 's kingdom of Lanka
Ramayana, the Hindu epic says Lakshmana was wounded
due to an arrow shot that had been sent by Ravana 's son.
to save Lakshmana 's
life, Hanuman, the monkey god was ordered to bring some medicine this medicine,
'Sanjivani ' could be found from one of the mountains in Himalaya in India in
haste Hanuman jumped to India
that he had forgotten the name of the medicinal plant so he brought the whole
mountain and part of it dropped down near Galle
this place is called today as Unawatuna, which means 'dropped
down', and that pan of mountain is the mount Roomassala this site close to the
Galle harbour is well known even today as a reserve of assorted medical uses and plants having
miraculous healing power
situated in the centre of the sea route to
the west
and the east in the 4th and centuries, Ships sailed to Galle from India,
Persia, Ethiopia and Arab countries commercial goods received from China such
as silk, cloves, sandalwood, and pepper from Malakka.
Kasturi (musk) from Sindhu reached 'Seiadeeba' in exchange for goods, and transactions were done
in Galle harbor several stone anchors of Indo-Arabian pattern have
been discovered one had been singled out as weighing almost one ton it has been
recorded that the Royal Dynasty 'Tisyng' 317-419 AD., reigned in the East obtained cinnamon
from a Chinese national named 'Chanke" he took them to China from the harbor 'Lole '
which means Galle .
Cosmos Indicaleustes refers to Galle in
his chronicles in 545 Al)., and mentioned Galle is one of the ancient ports of
call of the Levant (Levant—the non-European coastlands along the eaten shore
of the Mediterranean) the historical writings called Mung Ting in 740 AD
indicated the commercial relationship between China and Ceylon there they wrote
that Chinese ships very often sailed to 'Lool ' or Galle they took rice,
charcoal, sandalwood, ebony, arecanut, camphor, pulses, coconut, pepper,
sugarcane, incense and two types of oil from Galle harbor in the 1 0th century Abusyde Hussan of Basora mentioned that the harbor Qulah he says this port was the centre för ivory trade a trilingual
inscription was found near Galle harbor dated 1409 AD, it is recorded in Chinese, Tamil and
Arabic which referred to offerings sent by the Chinese Emperor
'Yung Lo' to the Buddha, the deities of Dondra and the god Allah for giving
protection to their sailors there were lists of offerings, too. The Arabian traveler and navigator Ibn Baluta had
visited Galle or Quali in 1344 AD., and stated that Galle was the principal port of Ceylon
in this way by the 14th century Galle was an international harbor and
a trade centre in Ceylon Moors did most of the
international trading until the arrival of Portuguese in 1505 AD, Dutch
Fried it named as • and Moon bastion one little the moon bastion as Zeepunt .Si the it the Star bastion ami Moon
bastions ate located either side of the entrance to the fort what van see as the nests entotnee between
Sun and moon tun(iong. was by
British in
AD, Star bastion eau be seen anew passim the clock
tower the bastions were inter-connected
by means an underground tunnel bis was
built at the place where ptvsently the of the »upenntendcnt of Polwe is
located those days the fort was known as Fortaleza'
A Franciscan Catholic
priest erected a Catholic church tn I $44 called St.redro we can see an
Islamic mosque in that place in the Far 1619 the Portuguese Captain
General Constantine De Zaa abandoned the rampart was on the suntntit of a mound and
started to build a new fortress to the place share the land jutted out
into the sea the court complex is situated in this place.
Dutch
period
The Akersloot bastion
is closer to Aurora bastion the premises of the Superintendent of Police where
the land jutted out to the harbor, was
much older than other places and both Portuguese and Dutch fortified it
carefully The Dutch named this as Zwart Fort bastion or Black Fort from here to
the next bend of the rampart was known as Pakhuis, a large warehouse the
years 1671, 1672 and 1676 were inscribed on the walls of the upstairs the main
entrance to the Galle fort was constructed across this warehouse over the
entrance the Dutch VOC monogram was carved beautifully on a stone slab this
original gate of the fort was by the harbor and is stillintact The
Dutch VOC monogram carved in stone and dated ANNO MDCLXIX (1669 Anno Domini) on
inner archway this northern fortified gate was protected by a drawbridge and a
ditch when British took over the Galle Fort they removed this emblem from there
and they fixed it over the inner-side of the archway the ditches filled in and
new block houses added a new gate put in between the moon and sun bastions the
final and additional 13th bastion may be The things located near the port the moat in front of the Fort
was restored to the width of 30 feet a canal had been constructed
from Mahamodera and was connected to the moat to supply water.
The ceiling was half
circle pattern and olden days it was painted in blue colour and glistening
stars were hung .The National Museum
building is the oldest one within the Galle fort, which was built in 1656 in
1865 part of it demolished to construct the New Oriental Hotel, hence the
original shape of the building has not been able to identify Galle was handed
over to the British on 23 rd February,
1796 they called it 'Point de Galle' it remained the center of international
trade until the Colombo port was developed Colombo port constructed during the
late 19th century the present Walkers Building
round the corner of Queen's Street, carries the Dutch emblem of Galle — a cock
standing on a rock with the date 1683 this building has spacious rooms,
latticed windows, tiled floors, high roofs which kept it cool etc. they are all
typical Dutch architectural patterns this was the official residence of the
Governor it was sold in 1872 by British Governor William Henry Gregory and was
purchased by Walkers who still retain it.
The following buildings belong to the British period:
the court house building, The Kachcheri, Present
Archaeology regional office, The Light House (1938) on the Utrecht bastion, the
Clock Tower, The Clan House (situated on the site of the Captain's house of the
Dutch period) etc.
Colombo-Galle horse carriage service was commenced in
1838 and it took 13 hours to complete the journey to protect Galle fort and its historical area the Galle
fort Foundation was established in 1994 by the Sri Lankan government by then the Galle fort has been
declared as a world heritage site in 1988 the attention of UNESCO and ICOMOS
were been directed to protect it
Galle has retained its fame of the most exquisite
handicrafts such as laces
(The Dutch called it as contpassen), carvings and
souvenirs made of wood — ivory, ebony and turtle shells
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