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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