Negombo Beach Day

Sight:St. Mary’s Church

Located on Grand Street in the middle of town stands the stately St. Mary’s Church is one of the largest and most historically significant Roman Catholic Churches built by the Portuguese missionaries with grand white columns, a rose-colored façade, spacious, serene interior and alabaster ceilings intricately painted with religious imagery by N.S. Godamanne, a local Buddhist artist.

Sight:Dutch Fort

An interesting stop for history lovers exploring Sri Lanka’s heartland of Sri Lankan Christianity, the historical Negombo Dutch Fort – originnaly built by the Portuguese with the intention to defend Colombo on a narrow strip of land at the estuary of Negombo Lagoon by the in the 1600’s the Fort was a simple square enclosure with, two redoubts, and five guns; at the beginning of 1640 the Dutch captured the Fort which fell to Portuguese and was recaptured by the Dutch who destroyed the bastions during the Dutch siege, and rebuilt in a pentagonal layout, surrounded by a dry moat, with a gate accessed via a drawbridge – today, only parts of the eastern rampart, mounds marking former bastions, and a recessed arched gateway with the date 1678 remain.

Sight:Ceylon Kingsmen Garden

A unique blend of botanical interest and peaceful ambiance, the Ceylon Kingsmen Garden is a quiet nature retreat where visitors can enjoy tranquil walks along shaded paths and experience the garden’s calming atmosphere, beautiful flowering plants and abundance of butterflies that provides a serene and relaxing environment for nature lovers and those seeking mental and physical rejuvenation.

Sight:Muthurajawela Marsh Tour

A little-known gem of a wetland at the southern end of Negombo’s lagoon the Muthurajawela wetland wilderness of Muthurajawela, Sri Lanka’s biggest estuarine wetland is home to Eurasian crocodiles, macaque monkeys and water monitors, as well as one of the world’s largest snakes, the Indian python as well as varied species of butterflies, dragonflies and  birds, such as kingfishers, egrets, herons, ducks and sandpipers.