Travel Day 1111 – Colombo, SRI LANKA
After being so little successful yesterday in finding any Portuguese colonial traces in Colombo, today I decided to rather focus on the Dutch…
Old Dutch Hospital in Fort Colombo
The Dutch had been at war with Portugal for many years and they had an interest in the lucrative spice trade when they arrived in Ceylon. So in 1638 the King of Kandy signed a treaty with the Dutch to unite forces against the mutual enemy, Portugal. Unfortunately the treaty was signed with different intentions and apparently slightly different translations. While the King of Kandy wanted to get rid of all colonial powers and the coastal fortresses, the Dutch wanted to assume the position that Portugal used to have and get a foot into the door of the spice trade…
In 1638 the Dutch captured the first Portuguese fort in Batticaloa, but it wasn’t until 1656 that the Dutch finally took control of Colombo after a long and bitter siege. Eventually some disputes arose between the king of Kandy and the Dutch, with the result that the Dutch took full control of the coastal areas and they made Colombo the capitol of their colonial rule. Since the Dutch held Colombo until 1796, when the British finally took over, I was hopeful to find a few more leftovers from the Dutch colonial period than I had yesterday from the Portuguese one…
Dutch Period Museum, Pettah, Colombo
Actually I had found already one Dutch colonial reminder yesterday, the Old Dutch Hospital, when I was walking around in the Colombo Fort area. Established in 1681, the hospital complex of the Dutch East India Company was nowadays considered the oldest building in the center of Colombo. I found the hospital with its long courtyard well-preserved and occupied by many extremely expensive restaurants. While the Old Dutch Hospital with its upscale gastronomical offers seemed pretty well frequented by rich local people, the low scale structure of the building itself stood in stark contrast to the surrounding modern buildings…
Since this seemed to be the only surviving Dutch colonial edifice in the Fort area, I continued my exploration walk beyond the bridge in the historic area of Pettah. This was actually the area where I had arrived by bus from the airport two days ago and where the friendly local had walked me over to the railway station in the middle of the night. Now I had the chance to see things during the day and I could do so on my way to the Dutch Period Museum…
Dutch Wolvendaal Church in Pettah
The whole area turned out to be a very busy market place with narrow lanes and one shop next to the other, but the Dutch Period Museum was closed. Luckily the gate-keeper opened the heavy doors for me after handing him little tip and he even walked me around through the entire 17th century building with its colonnaded courtyard, which once used to be the home of the Dutch governor. Here too, the Dutch colonial building felt awfully out of pace in the immediate surrounding but luckily it had at least survived as the only trace from a different time and a different life in Colombo…
The last Dutch building I found was then the much younger Wolvendaal Church which had once stood outside the city. Even if the name suggested that it stood in the valley of wolves, this church was actually located on a little hill overlooking Colombo and the harbor. Nowadays the views were blocked but initially Dutch sailors would have been able to see the Wolvendaal Church as they were arriving in Colombo. I personally was mostly enjoying the many Dutch tomb stones that covered the floor of the church and I was quite happy that today at least I found some Dutch colonial traces, even if mostly in Pettah…
Find all Colombo Photos here.
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