Behind the walls is an empty field which in the Dutch time was planted with trees. Now children play cricket here. To the left, on the seaside, is a Guesthouse, and the buildings in the right hand corner, next to the river, are occupied by the police. On the other side of the field is a nice little church. Over the doorway is the date 1769, when the serious damage done to it during the 'Matara rebellion' was repaired. It shows a resemblance to the church at Kalpitiya, which has pillared verandas along the sides too, containing the doorways. The front entrance on the short side of the Kalpitiya church is probably an element of the renovation in the British time.
Behind the town there used to be four elephant stables which could house up to 80 elephants and beyond that a tank where the elephants were washed. Matara was a centre for the elephant trade then. No traces of this are left. At the end of the land tongue today is a small fishing village with tall palm trees.
The lagoon is really the outlet of the Nilwala River. It used to be crossed by a simple floating bridge with a drawbridge in the middle, but there's a steel bridge now that leads to the new town of Matara. Just across the bridge is the Star Fort built by Van Eck after the revolt. It's a small star-shaped stronghold with a well inside it and immensely thick walls. It was built because the Matara Fort was indefensible, which had already been noted by Governor Rump in 1717. The rampart is only on one side of the town and you can simply walk around it along the beach. During the revolt of 1762 it was conquered by a Kandyan army that bombarded the town with cannonballs that went over the wall. After spiking their own cannon and destroying their ammunition and provisions, the garrison could be evacuated by two ships that were waiting at sea. Only a year later it was retaken by the Dutch, who found eight cannon on the walls, including an English one.

No comments:
Post a Comment