Where to Stay in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, Western Province

What is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte known for?

Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, seat of the national Parliament on its lake island in the Western Province. Known simply as Kotte, the city was once the heart of a medieval kingdom whose ramparts and moats still shape its low, watery ground. The Kotte Museum holds the record of that old capital.

Around it the surrounding city of Colombo carries the National Museum of Colombo and the Lotus Tower. A capital within a city.

What are the main landmarks in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte?

The landmarks of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte and its surrounding city span the medieval capital and the modern metropolis. At the legislative core, the Kotte Museum records the old kingdom. The Lotus Tower rises nearby.

Over the skyline of the neighbouring Colombo, the National Museum of Colombo, the Colombo National Art Gallery, and the Sri Lanka Planetarium gather the wider city's collections. Older still, the Dutch-built Wolvendaal Church and St. Lucia's Cathedral mark the colonial town, while the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka and Havelock Park spread green across the districts around Parliament.

What is the history of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte?

Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte grew from a medieval fortified capital, the seat of the Kingdom of Kotte that once ruled much of the island of Sri Lanka. Its name means the resplendent city of Jayawardana. The old Kotte was ringed by marsh and rampart, a defended royal town whose walls and moats used the surrounding wetlands as protection, and whose court held the island's political centre for generations.

Colonial powers reshaped the region. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British in turn built up the neighbouring harbour of Colombo, which spread until it enclosed the old Kotte entirely, and the Dutch left churches such as the Wolvendaal Church across the growing port. The medieval capital faded to a quiet suburb within that expanding city.

In the modern era the site was chosen as the new legislative capital, and a Parliament complex was built on a lake island at the historic heart, returning the seat of government to Kotte. The Kotte Museum keeps the record of the old kingdom, while the wider collections of the National Museum of Colombo trace the layered story of the Western Province and the coast.

Where is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte?

Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte lies in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, set on low, marshy ground just inland of the coast and wholly enclosed by the city of Colombo. A lake and old canals thread through the legislative core, where the Parliament complex sits on an island of reclaimed wetland. Colombo surrounds it on every side.

The land is flat and tropical, laced with waterways that once formed the moats of the medieval capital and now shape the green government quarter. The sea lies a short way to the west.

What is the climate of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte?

Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte has a hot, humid tropical climate, shared with the surrounding Colombo on the west coast of Sri Lanka. The warmth over Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte holds steady all year. Two monsoon seasons bring the heaviest rain, when downpours swell the lakes and canals that thread the legislative quarter before the skies clear again.

Between the rains the days stay bright and steamy. Sea breezes off the nearby coast take a little of the edge off the heat.

How do you get to Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte?

Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte is reached through Colombo, into which it merges without a break. The main roads and railway lines of the Western Province run through the surrounding city, and the country's main international airport lies to the north on the coast. Most travellers arrive first in Colombo and cross into the capital by road.

Buses and taxis link the two constantly. Once at Parliament, the compact lakeside quarter is easy to explore on foot.