Galle Fort occupies a rocky promontory where massive ramparts enclose streets, homes, religious buildings and former colonial offices. Popularly called the Dutch Fort, it began as a Portuguese fortified settlement in the sixteenth century and reached its most developed form under Dutch rule in the eighteenth. UNESCO inscribed the Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications in 1988.
The fort is significant not because it reproduces a European city unchanged, but because imported military and planning ideas were adapted to Sri Lankan geology, climate, materials and craft traditions. The street grid follows Dutch practices, while narrow-fronted houses use deep plans, courtyards and shaded verandas suited to tropical conditions.
