Fort Fredrick

Fort Fredrick Fort Fredrick Fort Fredrick

Fort Fredrick, also known as Trincomalee Fort or Fort of Triquillimale, is a fort built by the Portuguese at Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, completed in 1624 CE, built on Swami Rock-Konamamalai from the debris of the world-famous ancient Hindu Koneswaram temple (Temple of a Thousand Pillars). The temple was destroyed by the Portuguese colonial Constantino de Sá de Noronha under Phillip III, the occupier of the Jaffna kingdom and Malabar country on the island. On the Konamalai cape was also built a new village of Portuguese and Tamil people, 50 Portuguese soldiers, and inside the fort, a church named after “Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe”. The Fort of Triquillimale was dismantled and rebuilt by the Dutch in 1665, renamed Fort Fredrick.


Fort Fredrick Fort Fredrick Fort Fredrick

【LK94009901: Fort Fredrick. Images by Google, copyright(s) reserved by original authors.】

About Trincomalee District

Trincomalee is a port city on the east coast of Sri Lanka. The Bay of Trincomalee's harbour is renowned for its large size and security; unlike every other in the Indian Sea, it is accessible to all types of craft in all weathers. The beaches are used for surfing, scuba diving, fishing and whale watching. The city also has the largest Dutch fort in Sri Lanka. It is home to major Sri Lankan naval bases and a Sri Lankan Air Force base.

Most of the Tamils and Sinhalese believe that this place is sacred to them and they are the indigenous people of the area. Trincomalee and its environs have both Hindu and Buddhist sites of historical importance. These sites are sacred to the Hindus and Buddhists.

About Eastern Province

The Eastern Province is one of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but they didn't have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was temporarily merged with the Northern Province to form the North-East Province. The capital of the province is Trincomalee. The Eastern province's population was 1,460,939 in 2007. The province is the most diverse in Sri Lanka, both ethnically and religiously.

Eastern province has an area of 9,996 square kilometers (3,859.5 sq mi).The province is surrounded by the Northern Province to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Southern Province to the south, and the Uva, Central and North Central provinces to the west. The province's coast is dominated by lagoons, the largest being Batticaloa lagoon, Kokkilai lagoon, Upaar Lagoon and Ullackalie Lagoon.