Dutch Period Museum

Housed in a restored 17th-century mansion once used as the Dutch governor's residence, this museum displays colonial-era furniture, ceramics, maps, and Dutch East India Company documents. The building itself, with its courtyard and thick coral-stone walls, is arguably more interesting than the exhibits, which are modest and sparsely labeled. It gets a fraction of the visitors of the Dutch Hospital nearby, making it one of the quieter stops in Pettah. At 45-60 minutes, it works well slotted between larger visits rather than as a standalone destination.

You walk through low-ceilinged rooms around a central courtyard, past dark wood furniture and glass cases of porcelain, with the noise of Pettah's streets barely audible behind the thick walls.

It's one of the oldest surviving Dutch buildings in Colombo, and the courtyard offers a rare quiet pocket inside Pettah's otherwise chaotic streets. It is not the first thing you should see in Colombo, but with two or more days it fills a gap the major sights leave. It pairs naturally with Pettah Market and Jami-Ul-Alfar Mosque (Red Mosque) - add it before or after without rearranging your day. Mornings are quieter if you want to take your time.

It is in the Pettah part of Colombo. It is one entry in our list of things to do in Colombo. The Colombo guide covers transport, costs and when to go.

We plan trips to Colombo and the rest of Sri Lanka. Tell us your dates and we will put a route together. Our routes are on the tours page.