Matara Fort

The Matara Fort (Sinhala: මාතර බලකොටුව Mathara Balakotuwa; Tamil: மாத்தறைக் கோட்டை, romanized: Māttaṟaik Kōṭṭai) was built in 1560 by the Portuguese and was substantially re-built by the Dutch in 1640, following the capture of Galle. The fort, which consists of a large stone rampart, occupies the promontory, which separates the Niwala Ganga (River) lagoon and the ocean.

The Portuguese constructed the first fortifications in 1595, with the assistance of Don Juan Dharmapala, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kotte. In 1640 the Dutch captured Matara from the Portuguese, and in 1645 they were responsible for the construction of the current fortifications. The fort consists of a 240 m (790 ft) long, 13 m (43 ft) thick, 5 m (16 ft) high rampart and the gateway constructed from local limestone, granite and coral. The rampart originally had a ditch in front of it, two half bastion projections at each end and a larger projection in the centre close to the gate with a bridge across the ditch. It was built to protect the administrative buildings of VOC (Dutch East India Company), who were attracted by the deep and sheltered estuary of the Nilwala Ganga, making Matara an important centre for cinnamon and elephant trading.

During the 'Matara Rebellion' of 1761, the fort was captured by Kirti Sri Rajasinha's Kandyan army that bombarded the town with cannonballs that went over the wall. After spiking their own cannon and destroying their ammunition and provisions, the garrison was evacuated by two ships that were waiting at sea. The Dutch recaptured the fort on 2 February 1762, finding eight cannon on the walls, including an English one. During the Dutch rule the District Secretary's house, the cinnamon, areca nut, gunpowder storage and an elephant kraal (containing four elephant stables, which could house up to 80 elephants and a tank where the elephants were washed) were constructed within the fort.

The oldest building within the fort is the Dutch Reformatory Church, which is situated near the entrance. It was built by the Dutch in 1706 the date however etched above the entrance, 1767, refers to the reconstruction of the church by the Dutch following the Matara Rebellion. The door and window panels are made of heavy wood while the walls now show signs of crumbling as the proper mixture to rebuild them could not be found within Sri Lanka.

Text adapted from “Matara fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Matara Fort ranks #6,097 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #12 of the 15 mapped in Sri Lanka. Founded 1595, it is older than 34% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Sri Lanka compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗