Place · city

Batticaloa

Batticaloa is a city on the east coast of Sri Lanka, built around a large lagoon in the Eastern Province. The Portuguese built a fort there in the 1620s, which the Dutch captured in 1638 with the help of the king of Kandy, opening their conquest of the island's coasts. The city has a mainly Tamil-speaking population and was badly hit by the 2004 tsunami.

Batticaloa
Image: Anton Croos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Dutch Ceylon

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Batticaloa. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/batticaloa
MLA
“Batticaloa.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/batticaloa. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Batticaloa.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/batticaloa.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Batticaloa’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/batticaloa (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻