Inside is a sleepy little community still proud of its colonial roots, using them as a marketing tool to attract hordes of European tourists. The collection of Dutch colonial buildings is distinctly different from the ornate Mediterranean-style architecture introduced to Asia by the Portuguese or the regal sandstone buildings that marked a British presence. Streets are neatly organized into a grid pattern characteristic of fortified towns in northern Europe. But the Dutch left more than just bricks and mortar. Sri Lanka historians clearly struggled to define what made this Dutch monument so important to the development of this island nation.
Last names are likely unnecessary in a congregation so small.
He's been a member from birth and seems surprised when asked why he would belong to a religion with such obvious colonial overtones. Outside, a tout hawks badly worn Dutch coins he says were found in the choppy waters off Galle. Each bears the letters VOC, the initials of the Dutch East India Company, the trading firm that planned and built Galle to protect its stranglehold on the spice trade in what was then Ceylon. A walk down the narrow alleys is full of these unusual surprises. In the lobby are prints of soldiers in wide-brimmed hats and high collars sporting thick beards that look as if they've stepped out of a Reubens painting.