ABOUT
Located a few kilometres from Kandy, the cultural capital of the scenic central hill district of Sri Lanka, in the historic village of Eladetta, is Eladetta Walauwa Kandy – one of the finest heritage properties in Sri Lanka. This sprawling 20,000 sq. ft. mansion built more than 100 years ago, is restored to its original glory with added modern conveniences.
Offering a haven of peace and tranquility, Eladetta Walauwa Kandy will give its visitors a unique and an unforgettable experience of the hospitality of the once glorious Kandyan nobility. The picturesque garden is full of flowering plants and foliage. An estate of tea, coconut, herbs and spices, fruit trees, rare medicinal plants, paddy fields, and a natural spring adds to the beauty and charm of the Walauwa.
Original portraits and paintings from the Kandyan period, and other intricate works of local artists adorning the walls, the magnificent and spacious dining room, large verandahs with centre courts and floors with its original cut cement, the living room, and the woodwork throughout the Walauwa bear witness to the influence of traditional Kandyan as well as Asian, British and Dutch architecture.
ATUWA
The Paddy Storing Barn or "Atuwa" as called in Sinhalese, one of the largest in the area, which is still intact, and the traditional bathing well are other highlights of the place.
ROBERT KNOX
STONE PILLAR
A stone pillar placed at the periphery of the property marks it as the place where the British Trader and Traveller Robert Knox lived in Eladetta during the years 1670 to 1679 as a captive of King Rajasinghe II of Kandy
HISTORY
Eladetta Walauwa Kandy was built in the late 1800s by Cuda Banda Nugawela, a Kandyan Chieftain who was the custodian of the Sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha at the Temple of the Tooth - Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy.
A ‘Walauwa’ is a manor or mansion – inhabited in the past by persons considered to be aristocratic. Kandy had many such aristocratic families - a unique group amongst the many such that makes up the colorful fabric of Sri Lankan society.
The British Traveler, Robert Knox was held captive for almost twenty years in the Kingdom of Kandy in the year 1660. During the years 1670 to 1679 Knox lived in this village of Eladetta peddling knitted caps and cultivating paddy to earn a living, while entertaining other English captives at festivals such as Christmas and Easter. Apart from the stone monument that remembers his incarceration, his bathing spout too can be seen in this property. The paddy fields where he supplied seeds as mentioned in the chronicles, and the threshing areas are still in operation. Knox adopted the child of a mixed marriage and left this property at Eladetta in the name of his daughter, when he eventually escaped to territory held by the Dutch on the North-West Coast of the Island. On his return to England, he wrote the iconic Book, “an Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon”. The book which was published in 1681 was an immediate success. (Source: Wikipedia and The Life in the Kingdom of Kandy as seen by Robert Knox [1660-1680] – an Extract from a Chapter of Ceylon of the Early Travellers by H.A.J. Hulugalle first published in 1965).
ROBERT KNOX
BATHING SPOUT
PADDY FIELDS
The paddy fields where Robert Knox supplied seeds as mentioned in the chronicles, and the threshing areas are still in operation.