Basking on the southern coast of Sri Lanka in the bay of Galle, the Fort was first built by the Portuguese in 1588 before being extensively fortified by the Dutch in the mid-1600s. Recognized by UNESCO for its cultural heritage value, the Fort has declared a World Heritage Site in 1988 as a unique exposition of “an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries.”