Forts and
fortifications in
Sri Lanka date back thousands of years with many being built by Sri Lankan Kings, these include several walled cities. With the out set of colonial rule in the
Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka was occupied by several major colonial empires that from time-to-time became the dominant power in the Indian Ocean. The colonists built several western styled forts, mostly in and round the coast of the island. The first to build colonial forts in Sri Lanka were the
Portuguese, these forts were captured and later expanded by the
Dutch. The
British occupied these Dutch forts during the
Napoleonic wars.
Most of colonial forts were garrisoned up until the early 20th century. The coastal forts had
coastal artillery manned by the
Ceylon Garrison Artillery during the two world wars. Most of these were abandoned by the military, but retained civil administrative officers, while others retained military garrisons, which were more administrative than operational. Some were reoccupied by military units with the escalation of the
Sri Lankan Civil War, Jaffna fort for example came under siege several times.
^Royal Palace. Briefly used as an outpost of the
Kingdom of Kandy in the 16th and 17th centuries.
^Located to the south of
Sigiriya is the Mapagala Fortress (‘Rock of the Viceroy’), a fortress with massive stone walls, which was built prior to Sigiriya.
^Later controlled by the Dutch and then the British
. ()
.jpg)
_fort.jpg)
