Negombo is among the top picks when it comes to transit accommodation at a Beach Hotel. Sri Lanka has plenty to offer in terms of urban accommodation, yet something about Negombo attracts you to its simple and robust way of life. Although the city of Negombo may be congested and nothing to write home about, tucked into this urban chaos are gems of an older age such as the Old Dutch Fort.

Although the current Negombo Fort is a Dutch construction, the location initially was taken up by a Portuguese Fort that was blown up by Dutch cannons during the siege of 1644. Once the Dutch took over the premises, they reconstructed the Fort, not in the usual box pattern, but in a pentagon. Located between an inlet to the sea and the lagoon, the Fort resides on a narrow strip of land, with a gate that was once accessible only via a drawbridge. Similar to the Dutch Fort in Galle, the land side of the Fort was home to a small town with straight streets, while the other side of the wall constantly flooded during high tide. While this made the Fort a highly defendable construction, the painter Heydt who painted one of the earliest illustrations of the Fort in 1744, was of the opinion that it could have been built better.

It appears that the distaste for the Fort was shared by the British who invaded after the Dutch, for they took down the Fort and used its materials to build a prison. As a result, what remains today are only the ruins of a structure that must have been a sight to behold. The discernible features of the ruin include the eastern wall, the main gate and a tunnel that seems to open into what could have been a courtyard. It is not necessary for you to stay in Negombo itself to walk among these ruins, though. You could visit it on your way to Kalpitiya or on your way back from some of the popular holiday accommodation options like Amagi Beach Marawila, as the ruins if the old Fort is there in plain sight.

Intrigued by history, art and food, Lavinia Woolf is a writer who is passionate about the extraordinary and writes of the exhilarating and enchanting.

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