Sri Lanka · 16th century
Galle Fort (Sinhala: ගාලු කොටුව Galu Kotuwa; Tamil: காலிக் கோட்டை, romanized: Kālik Kōṭṭai), in the Bay of Galle on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, was built first in 1588 by the Portuguese, then extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards. It is a historical, archaeological and architectural heritage monument, which even after more than 437 years maintains a polished appearance, due to extensive reconstruction work done by the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka.
The fort has a colourful history, and today has a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population. The heritage value of the fort has been recognized by UNESCO and the site has been inscribed as a cultural heritage UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria iv, for its unique exposition of "an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries."
The Galle Fort, also known as the Dutch Fort or the "Ramparts of Galle", withstood the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 which damaged part of the coastal Galle town. It has since been restored.
Text adapted from “Galle Fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Galle Fort ranks #706 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 15 mapped in Sri Lanka. Founded 1584, it is older than 34% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 891 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 9,497 times in the last 60 days, more than 93% of the atlas. See how Sri Lanka compares in the castle statistics.
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