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Two empires
The Portuguese began the fort in 1588 and the Dutch rebuilt it
Galle Fort was first built in 1588 by the Portuguese, who made a small fort of palm trees and mud. The Dutch then extensively fortified it during the 17th century, from 1649 onwards.
Bastions
The Dutch ringed the peninsula with 13 more bastions
The Dutch considered the Portuguese earth and palisade fortifications unsafe. They fully encircled the peninsula, building 13 more bastions of coral and granite over 52 hectares. The sea wall was completed in 1729.
13more bastions built by the Dutch
The gate
The oldest gate carried a Dutch emblem with a rooster on a rock
The older of the two gates was completed by the Dutch in 1669. Above it was an emblem of the Dutch East India Company, a rooster on a rock above a shield with the letters VOC. In 1796 the British moved it inside and put up the arms of King George III.
“...an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries.”
UNESCO, on the fort's listing
The sea
The fort withstood the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004
Galle Fort withstood the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, which damaged part of the coastal town of Galle. The fort has since been restored.
Day 7, morning
Next is Galle Lighthouse.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Galle Fort, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.