Point Pedro fort ( ta, பருத்தித்துறைக் கோட்டை, translit=Paruttittuṟaik Kōṭṭai; si, පේදුරුතුඩුව බලකොටුව ''Peduruthuduwa Balakotuwa'') is a fort built in 1665 by the
Dutch in
Point Pedro
Point Pedro ( ta, பருத்தித்துறை, translit=Paruttittuṟai; si, පේදුරු තුඩුව, translit=Pēduru Tuḍuva) is a town, located in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka, at the northernmost point of the island.
...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. It was constructed during the
Second Anglo-Dutch War, by the
Dutch East India 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 ...
to counter a possible British attack from the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
.
On the 27 August 1795, the fort was captured by British forces, the
61st Pioneers
The 61st Pioneers were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They trace their origins to, when they were raised as the 1st Battalion Coast Sepoys.
History
The regiment took part in the Carnatic Wars in 1746–1763 and then the Third ...
(also known as 1st Battalion Sepoys).
It is reported that the basement was triangular in shape, which led to it being built as a nearly triangle-shaped fort. It had only one
bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
towards the landward side and it was lacking space inside the fort due to its structure. The seaside structure of the fort was just a wall with no bastions or cannons. Further details of the fort have been identified from Dutch era maps. According to the maps, one side wall was long and the other two walls were in length.
References
{{coord missing, Sri Lanka
British forts in Sri Lanka
Buildings and structures in Point Pedro
Dutch forts in Sri Lanka
Forts in Northern Province, Sri Lanka
Buildings and structures associated with the Dutch East India Company