Attended by thousands every year, St Anthony's Shrine sits on the site of a mud-brick chapel built in the Dutch colonial period in honor of St Anthony of Padua.
People of all faiths visit this church because the statue of St Anthony is believed to grant miracles. As such, mass and sermons are held in Sinhalese, Tamil and English at separate times. Sundays are especially busy; if you wish to pay respects to St Anthony, candles are sold outside the church.
St Anthony's Shrine was one of the targets of the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, when a string of suicide bombs were detonated around Colombo, killing an estimated 93 people at this site alone. A small memorial inside is dedicated to those who lost their lives.