A Dutch-built walled city on a Sri Lankan promontory — the most atmospheric colonial town in South Asia
Galle Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — a 90-acre walled city on a rocky promontory on Sri Lanka's south coast, built by the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries over earlier Portuguese foundations, and still inhabited. Within the walls, Dutch Reformed churches, VOC warehouses, colonnaded streets, cricket grounds, and 400-year-old ramparts coexist with boutique hotels, excellent restaurants, independent bookshops, and gem dealers. The fort has been gentrified by the tourist trade but never hollowed out; real families still live here, the streets smell of cinnamon and incense, and watchin…
Galle's natural harbour made it the first port of call for Arab, Chinese, and Indian traders crossing the Indian Ocean for millennia. The Portuguese built the first European fort here in 1588; the Dutch captured it in 1640 after a naval battle and spent the next century constructing the elaborate bastioned fortifications that survive today. The fort fell to the British in 1796 without a fight and served as the island's main port until Colombo's breakwater was completed in 1885. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hit the cricket ground during a test match — the entire playing area is within the wal…