Wolvendaal Church

Erected in 1749, the fading Wolvendaal Church is the most important Dutch building in Sri Lanka. Most of the woodwork inside the fading interior is original, and the floor is a patchwork of Dutch-period grave-slabs decorated with coats of arms, cherubs and symbols of mortality.

This area was once a wilderness beyond the city walls, and European settlers mistook roaming jackals for wolves, hence the name Wolf’s Dale, or Wolvendaal in Dutch.

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