Wasalakotte is a beautiful, historical village in the District of Matale in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. It is about 140 km from Colombo via Kurunegala and off Galewela towards Matale. The name Wasalakotte means a Royal Fortress.
This village is supposed to have been the residence of a Sinhalese King, and traces of an old palace are yet visible. The first settlers of Wasalakotte were Portuguese captives who were sent here about the year 1600. They possessed a small statue of St. Anthony, for which they had great veneration. This statue and their Catholic faith survived the persecution of the Dutch, and today, Wasalakotte has blossomed into one of the most sacred places of worship for Catholics in Sri Lanka with a beautiful shrine built in 1938.
During the reign of King Sithavaka Rajasinghe (1588 - 1590), a prince of former royal family named Yamasinghe who received baptism at Goa under the name of Don Philip returned to the Kandyan kingdom, and with the help of Portuguese was acclaimed King at Wasalakotte. When Don Philip died in 1590, another usurper Konappu Bandara, afterwards Wimaladharmasooriya (1590 - 1604), seized the Kandyan throne, and Don Philip's son Don Jao was forced to flee to Wasalakotte. He later fled to Portugal and became a priest there. Wasalakotte is therefore, connected with the first and only Catholic King of Kandy and with the first Kandyan to become a Catholic priest.
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| The Miraculous Statue of St. Anthony at Wasalakotte |
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