Negombo

Why Visit

The natural place to spend a night before an early flight or after landing, with enough of its own character — canals, a fish market, a lagoon — to be worth a stop in itself.

A coastal town a short drive from the international airport, with a working fishing fleet, a lagoon and a beach for a first or last night in the country.

History

Negombo was fortified first by the Portuguese and then rebuilt by the Dutch, who captured it in 1640, completed the surviving fort gateway around 1672, and developed the area heavily for the cinnamon trade, which grew wild in the surrounding lowlands and which the Dutch controlled as a strict monopoly for over a century, guarding the trees and export routes closely. Portuguese missionary activity from the 16th century onward left a lasting Catholic influence that remains unusually strong here compared to much of the rest of the island, visible in the town's many churches and earning Negombo the local nickname "Little Rome." The Hamilton Canal, still used by fishing boats today, was built by the Dutch in the 18th century as part of a longer inland waterway system connecting Negombo to Colombo and beyond, allowing goods — cinnamon especially — to be moved without the risks of open-sea transport along this coast.