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The seashore city of Galle is 116 Km., from Colombo by road or rail, down the southwest coastline. Both routes are charming, following the shoreline closely for much of the way. Present town has grown greatly and spreads into the hinterland but the Fort is the slow-beating heart of Galle 's history.
The walled city has stood since the early sixteenth century, through the Colonial periods of the Portuguese, Dutch and British and in our present times is declared as an Archaeological store and been recognized as a World Heritage site.The Dutch landed in 1640 with 12 ships and 2,000 men under the power of Wilhelm Jacobsz Coster who defeated the Portuguese after stern war and a four-day siege. Akersloot Bastion is named after the native land of Coster , the Dutch commander-in-chief who captured GalleThe Dutch later on transformed the Portuguese fortaleza into a solo bastion which they named Zwart Bastion and built a alarming line of defense, humming the walled town by ten bastions, which endure to this day. The Portuguese took Galle from the Sinhala rulers in 1587 and erected the first ramparts, a single wall fronted by a moat, which extended from the sea to the harbour.
During the rolling streams of time and change, Galle Still retains as few other towns in Sri Lanka ; an ambiance of the past. The town was elegances with substantial civic amenities and military features. Despite fresh face-lifts and latest frontages to many of the residences and the opening of modern public facilities like electricity, telephone systems, water and drainage services, the streets stay behind narrow and many are known by their original names such as Leyn-Baan Street , Zeeberg Street and Moderabaay Street . A peep into the old houses discloses them to be spacious and well ventilated, with large, decorative doors and windows, supported verandahs and cool inner porticos and gardens.
Nothing bespeaks the town's wealth in British period as the grand mansions - with the names Closenburg, Eddystone, Barthfield, Armitage Hill or Nooit-Gedacht- a few of which, though shaped with time's changes, still stay alive. The finest potted is Closenburg, the gracious and spacious bungalow built by the agent of the British shipping company, P & O: its roof tether still displays the P & O sunburst. Hill bungalow occupied a site rustically lovely- out of Galle town. The drive to Baddegama is an amusing experience and show the ways out to the fine cathedral sanctified in 1825, by Bishop Heber - Bishop of Calcutta. The church today is ornamented in a purely indigenous fashion and at mass; the Ceylon Liturgy is said in Sinhalese, sung to Sinhalese music. The fine pillars of the nave, each a sole piece of ironwood timber should be noted and the vision from the tower is worth the climb. Drive back through Dodanduwa, visiting, if permission can be arranged, the Buddhist island hermitage in the Ratgama Lake , a retreat of never-ending peace and beauty.
Unawatuna bay provides secure swimming and snorkeling, protected as it is by a reef. Rhumassala Kanda is allied with the legend of the traditional Ramayana story. When the warrior Lakshman was injured, a Himalayan herb was obligatory for his cure and Rama des patched the Monkey-god Hanuman to fetch it. However, Hanuman forgot the name of the herb, so to be on the safe side he tore off a hunk of the Himalayas , carried it on his back and dumped it, where it now lies!
Galle is the kind of place from which one must take away a souvenir. You may make a pick of Galle lace, -handmade, like the Brussels or the Honiton types. Where but in Galle may you sink your hands into a bucketful of limpid moonstones or the more valuable and rarer of gems, the blue sapphire or the ruby! These can be delightfully place according to your whim or desire!
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