Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Cinnamon Gardens?

Few Colombo districts hold this many. The National Museum of Colombo leads a run that takes in the National Museum of Natural History, the Colombo National Art Gallery, the Independence Memorial Museum and the Sri Lanka Cricket Museum, all inside one neighbourhood. Two sporting venues follow.

The Colombo Racecourse and the Royal College Sports Complex occupy the open land, while the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour supplies the one major church on the list.

What is the history of Cinnamon Gardens?

Cinnamon gave the place its name. A cinnamon plantation once covered this ground, and in 1789 the gardens carried 289 acres of cinnamon trees before the planting gave way to the streets of Colombo. The trees went; the name stayed.

What replaced them is an affluent quarter of museums and institutions, from the National Museum of Colombo to the Independence Memorial Museum, on land that once grew a single spice crop.

Where is Cinnamon Gardens?

Cinnamon Gardens covers a stretch of inner Colombo, in Sri Lanka, on ground that was a cinnamon plantation before the city reached it.