British Clock in the Dutch Fort
- Clock Tower, Matara
- 24/7
Timekeeping
Late 19th Century, the British Government built clock towers at the ramparts of their most important coastal forts, modelled after the world-famous clock tower ‘Big Ben’ at the Thames River. After Colombo and Galle, in 1883 Matara also got a tower, in the middle of the town on the rampart walls. It no longer tells the time but still is a pompous and iconic symbol of Matara.
Most people think the Galle and Matara clock towers were built by the Dutch, because they are in the Dutch forts, but this is wrong, they were built by the British.