Fort Fredrick

Fort Fredrick (Tamil: திருகோணமலை கோட்டை, romanized: Tirukōṇamalai Kōṭṭai; Sinhala: ත්‍රිකුණාමලය බලකොටුව, romanized: Thrinkunamalaya Balakotuwa), also known as Trincomalee Fort or Fort of Triquillimale, is a fort built by the Portuguese at Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, completed in 1624 CE, built on Swami Rock-Konamamalai from the debris of the world-famous ancient Hindu Koneswaram temple (Temple of a Thousand Pillars). The temple was destroyed by the Portuguese colonial Constantino de Sá de Noronha under Phillip III, occupier of the Jaffna kingdom and Malabar country on the island. On the Konamalai cape was also built a new village of Portuguese and Tamil people, 50 Portuguese soldiers and inside the fort, a church named after "Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe". The Fort of Triquillimale was dismantled and rebuilt by the Dutch in 1665, renamed Fort Fredrick.

Text adapted from “Fort Fredrick” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Fredrick ranks #2,266 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #3 of the 13 mapped in Sri Lanka. Founded 1623, it is older than 30% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,687 times in the last 60 days, more than 62% of the atlas. See how Sri Lanka compares in the castle statistics.

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