Colombo Fort, Whose Fort and Where?

By Chryshane Mendis

When we say Colombo Fort and Pettah, it is a well-known place, the main transport hub where most of us travel to and from daily and the Fort area with its city hotels, banks, commercial firms and government offices within an intermix of colonial and modern architecture. Through my studies on the history of Colombo and of its understanding by the general public in collective knowledge and writings, I see there is a slight confusion on exactly whose fort and most importantly, its various transitions and location. Many would know in general of how the Portuguese first landed in Colombo and built the first fort and later on to the Dutch and how it was finally removed by the British. But where exactly were these forts, and how many? Was it the same fort built by the Portuguese in 1518 that was captured by the Dutch in 1656 and was it this same fort demolished by the British? Were all these forts situated in what we now call Fort? Was the Pettah ever part of the fort or was it a town outside the walls as its Sinhala name suggest?

So here is the clear story.

Although the Portuguese had made contact with the king of Kotte in 1505, it was only in 1518 did they take steps to actively establish a foothold in the country. This came in the form of a ‘feitoria-fortalez’, a combination of their commercial building commonly called a factory with a fortress. As Colombo was the principle port of the kingdom, they decided to build the fort on the tip of the rocky headland which characterized the Colombo harbour. This point is commonly called Galbokka and in English was termed the ‘Hook of Colombo’, they called it the Point of St. Lawrence. This was a small triangular fort as depicted by Gaspar Correa. This location was recognizable until recently. It was the point from where the British built the Southwest breakwater and now the starting point for the passenger terminal and the SAGT. With the filling for the deep water terminal, the sea to its west was removed and this ‘hook’ is now virtually unrecognizable without the aid of a map. The fort would have been in the area of the Maritime Museum, Commissariat Street, the Harbour Master’s Office and the round-about to CICT. This fort of the Portuguese was pulled down by themselves in 1524 leaving only a small building to work as the factory.

Gaspar Correa's drawing of the first fort

Current location of the first fort

For the next thirty years the Portuguese did not engage in any building works in Colombo. However in the early 1550s their position in the island changed with the death of King Buvenakabahu and they were made guardians of the kingdom for the young king Dharmapala. In 1554 they began building a larger fort in Colombo which is thought to be the area of what we call Fort at present (this is not the genesis of the present name). With the building of this fort, the activities of the port were centered within the walls which could be described as a fortified town. It should be stated that at this point, the Beira Lake did not exist. There was a rivulet which flowed roughly parallel and to the west of the present canal which connects the lake to the harbour. This rivulet was dammed further towards the south and formed into the lake during the next phase of construction by the Portuguese.

This fortified town of the Portuguese withstood several sieges by the Sitavaka kingdom but in 1565 due to the repeated attacks on the city of Kotte, the Portuguese decided to abandon the capital and transfer its king and people to Colombo as it could be better defended with their navy. With this influx of people, the walled town had to be extended. This expansion took place eastwards up to present 4^th Cross Street Pettah.

It is this final expansion of the Portuguese fort which defined the urban space of present day Fort and Pettah. Now taking on the title of City and until the death of Dharmapala, the nominal Capital City of the kingdom of Kotte, the fortifications came to encircle the city instead of a singular military fort. This fortified city was protected from the north, east and south with ramparts and about a dozen bastions with the rocks on the coast acting as a natural defence to the west. The rivulet was now incorporated within the city and the lake created to the south gave additional protection to the city. The walls ran roughly along the present boarders of Fort and Pettah as can be seen in this comparative satellite image. Thus was the outline of Portuguese Colombo from 1565 to 1656.

Portuguese Colombo in 1656

Comparison of the three Portuguese fort sites in the present day. YELLOW – First Fort, GREEN – Fortified town, RED – Ramparts of Fortified City

When the Dutch sieged and captured the city in 1656, the irregular street pattern and outdated defences did not suite them, therefore they decided on redrawing Colombo completely on a more regular and functional system albeit within more or less the existing city boundaries. Taking the rivulet that ran through the city as a center line, they planned their main fort to the west of it and for the residential town to the east of it. The Fort on the west was called the Casteel or Castle and the town to the east was called the Oude Stad or Old City. Enter the present demarcation of Fort and Pettah!

By the end of the 1650s they began to demolish the entire Portuguese city (fortifications and buildings) and by the 1670s, had rebuilt a completely new city and defenses. Now the city of Colombo which was formally was one entity surrounded ramparts was divided into two sections and both independently fortified by ramparts and bastions.

The Casteel comprised of nine bastions linked by ramparts in an irregular polygon. On the harbour arm (Hook of Colombo) the Dutch built three gun batteries (later reduced to two) to protect the harbour and linked these to the main fort by two lines of fortified warehouses. The Dutch also converted the rivulet into a moat to protect the Casteel thus removing this natural feature from the landscape. The Fort had three main entrances, the Delft gate on the east which led to the town, the Galle gate on the south which led to Galle Face and south, and the Water gate on the northwest which gave access to the harbour. The interior of the fort was reserved to the highest officials of the VOC and comprised of two principle streets (present day Janadipathi Mawatha and York Street). The fort included the residences of the officials including the Governor, various offices, barracks and munitions shores, a church and a hospital.

The residential town which corresponds to the modern Pettah was also fortified to the north, east and south with ramparts and seven bastions and with the west protected by the Casteel. These ramparts would have run along Bankshall Street to the north, 4^th Cross Street to the east and Olcott Mawatha to the south. However by the end of the 17^th century it was decided that the fortifications of the Casteel alone would be sufficient and these fortifications were left to fall into ruin in the 1690s and completely removed by the 1730s.

Hence by the end of the Dutch period, the Casteel was the only space fortified and which is why we today call that area Fort. The name Pettah only comes into use during the British period which is the Anglicized form of the Indian word Pettai which referred to a suburb of a British fort in India. In Sinhala it is known as Pita Kotuwa which is exactly what it means.

Colombo in 1681 - with Oude Stad fortifications

Colombo in 1756 - after removal of Oude Stad fortifications 

Another common confusion is of the ‘Keymans Gate’ at present Gas Works junction in Pettah where the old belfry can be seen. This is sometimes understood in vernacular writings as of a fortified gateway which gave access to the town, which is however not the case. During the time the Pettah(Oude Stad) was fortified, there was indeed one fortified entrance through the rampart on the east called the Negombo gate. The gate was beside the bastion Victoria which corresponds to the present Colombo Gold Center (former Fish market) and the gate would have been aligned to present Bankshall Street. After the removal of the ramparts, the main access to the town from the outside was shifted to align with the present Main Street and there was made a ‘guardroom’ which came to be known as the Keymans Gate.

When the British marched in front of Colombo, the Dutch surrendered the city without a fight on the 16^th of February 1796. Thus the Dutch fort of Colombo saw no action. The British continued to use the Casteel and its fortifications without much change, while the major change was that the area of the Fort was opened up for private use unlike under the Dutch. Later in the mid-1860s it was decided to build a new barracks for the military and coinciding with the fortifications going obsolete, it was decided to demolish the ramparts on the east and south and between 1869 and 1871 much of the ramparts, bastions and the moat on this side were demolished and the Echelon barracks (now demolished) were built in the 1880s. The fortifications on the west and north survived but through the years became separated and scattered amounting to eight locations at present. This in simple is the story of the ‘Forts’ of Colombo and through which the general development of the city too could be understood.