The Colombo Dutch Museum is a museum that covers the history of the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

colonial rule in Sri Lanka.

The building

The two storey

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

d building on Prince Street,

Pettah Pettah may refer to: * Pettah of Ahmednagar, a fortified town outside the Fort of Ahmednagar stormed by British soldiers in 1803 during Second Anglo-Maratha War * Pettah, Colombo, a neighborhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka located east of the City centr ...

(

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

11) which houses this

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

was constructed during the Dutch occupation of Colombo (1656 - 1796) and was the formal residence of the Governor of Dutch Ceylon

Thomas van Rhee Thomas van Rhee (16 December 1634 – 31 March 1701) was a Governor of Dutch Ceylon. Career In 1659, he arrived in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. From 1674 until 1678, he worked in Negapatnam. He was appointed Governor of Dutch Ce ...

(1634 - 1701) during his term of office in 1692 to 1697. The building has been used for many different purposes over the years. It was a teacher training college and an institute for the instruction of clergymen between 1696 and 1796. At one time it was the residence of

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

August Carl Fredrick Von Ranzow (1759 - 1844). It operated as an orphanage under the supervision of the deacons and financed by the

Dutch East Indies Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock co ...

. It was also used as a hospital. It became a barracks in the second half of the 1800s and in 1900 it was used as a police training school, set up by the British. In 1932 it was converted to the Pettah

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

. In 1971 following heavy

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...

rains one of the exterior walls collapsed and the building was abandoned. Following protests by the Royal Asiatic Society and the Dutch Burgher Union against plans to demolish the building, in 1973 a committee was established with representatives from the Ceylon Tourist Board, the Department of Archaeology, the Netherlands Alumni Association of Lanka and the National Archives, to restore the building and establish a museum covering the Dutch colonial period. The restoration of the building commenced in 1977, with financial assistance of

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

government, and was completed in 1981. This museum was opened to the public in 1982. This building embodies the unique architectural features of a colonial Dutch town house. In 1999 the museum building was formally recognised by the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

as an archaeological protected monument in Sri Lanka. The designation was declared on 18 June under the government

Gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...

number 1085. The museum while displaying the Dutch legacy with the artefacts including furniture,

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

s and

weaponry A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

, portraying the various facets of contemporary life and culture.

References

British colonial architecture in Sri Lanka Dutch colonial architecture in Sri Lanka Houses in Colombo Museums in Colombo Archaeological protected monuments in Colombo District History museums in Sri Lanka {{SriLanka-museum-stub

The building

See also

References