One of Sri Lanka's largest Catholic churches, its vast nave crowned by richly painted ceilings.

Overview

St Mary's Church is the grandest of Negombo's many Catholic churches and one of the largest in the country. Behind its imposing neoclassical facade lies a soaring nave whose ceilings are covered with vivid religious paintings depicting biblical scenes and saints. As the spiritual centre of a strongly Catholic town nicknamed 'Little Rome', it draws worshippers and visitors alike, and comes especially alive during feast days and Easter processions.

History

Negombo's large Catholic community dates to Portuguese missionary work along the cinnamon coast in the 16th and 17th centuries. St Mary's Church was built over several decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its interior ceiling paintings executed by local artists, cementing the town's reputation as a stronghold of Sri Lankan Catholicism.