The smallish Dutch rampart occupies the promontory separating the Nilwala Ganga from the sea. Built in the 18th century to protect the VOC’s kachcheri (administrative office), its structure is a little peculiar – it was originally meant to be part of a large fort, but accountants, with their pesky cost-cutting exercises, dictated otherwise. The rampart borders the atmospheric, though crumbling, Matara Fort district.