Richmond Castle

Richmond Castle is an Edwardian mansion built around 1900 by a wealthy Sinhalese landowner, located about four kilometres north of Kalutara town on the Colombo road. It is an extraordinary piece of architecture — a hybrid of European and South Asian styles that sits in a large garden with views toward the river.

The building is famous for its 99 doors and windows, which are counted by nearly every visitor who comes. The interiors reflect a colonial-era sensibility that mixed Sinhalese craftsmanship with European decorative furniture: carved wooden ceilings, Italian-tiled floors, and period furniture. The mansion has been preserved as a heritage site and is open to visitors, with a guide available to explain the history and point out the more peculiar details.

Richmond Castle is a short tuk-tuk ride north of town on the A2 coastal highway. It rewards visitors with an interest in colonial history and local aristocratic culture, and provides a good counterpoint to the Buddhist monuments closer to the town centre.

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A story
The 99 doors of Richmond Castle are not a coincidence. According to local tradition, the original owner — a Sinhalese aristocrat who had grown wealthy as a carbon-copy of his colonial patrons — deliberately kept the count at 99 to avoid paying a tax that was levied on buildings with 100 or more openings. Whether the tax existed or not, the count stuck, and visitors still count doors on their way around the building.

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