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WOLVENDAAL CHURCH

In presenting our readers with a photograph of Wolvendaal
Church we take the opportunity to give a few brief
particulars relating to the origin and history of the
building, which, with the churches at Jaffna and Galle, has
always been a link to bind the Dutch Burghers of the present
day with the Hollandsche Natie, or Dutch Community,
established here during the, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Time and circumstances have effected a great
many changes in the religious sentiments and opinions of the
Dutch who remained here after the British occupation ; for
many families of the Dutch Burghers in Ceylon no longer
belong to the communion of what is still called the "Dutch
Reformed Church" here; but to all of the race, whether
worshippers within its walls or members of other congrega-
tions, this noble edifice will ever remain a precious relic of
the days of their forefathers.

The date of the Church, as inscribed on a stone in the
outer wall of the building, is 1749. This, and the initial
letters I. V. S. V. G., on one of the side gables, associate the
building with the name of the Governor Julius Valentyn
Stein van Gollenesse, who ruled from 11th May 1743 to 6th
March 1751. But it is proved by other records that the
church was not open for public worship until many years
later, viz., 1757. We may therefore safely infer that 1749 was
the date of the laying of the foundation stone of the build-
ing. It would appear that so far back as 1736 the Governor

        

12/26/98