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Political protests in Sri Lanka have intensified over latest months, with protesters’ consideration targeted on the ruling elite and particularly former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He and his household have been blamed for the unprecedented financial breakdown that’s inflicting extreme hardships for the nation’s 22 million folks.
On July 9, tens of 1000’s of protesters descended on the official residence of the president of Sri Lanka within the heart of the capital metropolis of Columbo. So centrally situated is the residence that every one distances from Colombo are measured, formally in miles, from the President’s Home.
Protesters and onlookers swiftly overcame the safety surrounding the residence earlier than wandering across the manicured gardens and getting into the palatial residence. For a number of days, Columbo’s residents flocked to the home like a vacationer attraction, marvelling on the lavish interiors and work inside and on the enormous beds piled excessive with pillows. Information studies around the globe featured images and photographs of strange residents cooling off within the president’s swimming pool. Many individuals stated that they by no means thought they might ever have had the chance to go to this place.
Individuals throng President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence for the second day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, July 11, 2022. AP Photograph by Rafiq Maqbool.
Positioned at Janadhipathi Mawatha in Colombo, the colonial residence is a two-story white constructing that dates from across the 1790s, when it was constructed by the final Dutch governor, Johan van Angelbeek, on the location of St. Francis Church, which had been constructed by the Portuguese within the sixteenth century. Angelbeek’s granddaughter offered the home for 10,000 kilos to the British as a residence for the governor.
Since 1804, the residence has been utilized by a succession of 29 British governors and 6 presidents of Sri Lanka. Throughout the days of the British administration, it was often called Authorities Home in addition to “King’s Home” or “Queen’s Home” relying on the monarch on the time.
The ten-acre grounds surrounding the residence, often called Gordon Gardens, had been laid out at his personal expense in the course of the time of Governor Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon in honor of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1887. The gardens contained many species of timber and flowers, they usually remained open to the general public till 1980 after they had been closed for safety causes. A marble statue of Queen Victoria was faraway from the gardens in 2006.
When Sri Lanka grew to become impartial in 1948, the constructing grew to become the official residence of the governor-general of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was identified on the time). In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II stayed on the residence with Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, throughout their royal go to to Ceylon. The queen was the primary and solely monarch of Ceylon to go to the nation and the 10-day tour included a royal procession via Colombo the place she opened the primary session of the second Parliament.
Later in 1954, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke took up residence at Queen’s Home as the primary Sri Lankan to be appointed to the put up of governor-general. He was changed by William Gopallawa on March 2, 1962 who would function governor-general after which later as the primary president of Sri Lanka in 1972. The constructing then grew to become often called the President’s Home as Sri Lanka grew to become a republic. It grew to become the official residence of the top of state, with the President’s Secretariat situated on the Outdated Parliament Constructing within the capital.
The residence fell into disrepair within the Eighties and Nineties after years of neglect and underwent main refurbishments below the path of influential Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. A number of successive presidents of Sri Lanka used the official residence solely periodically and sometimes resided elsewhere, together with the latest inhabitant, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Nonetheless official features and receptions had been held on the residence.
In June 2016, the President’s Home was opened to the general public for every week and welcomed a number of teams of college kids, however it afforded few strange folks with a chance to go to the home. That modified in July 2022, when protesters occupied the constructing. The home and grounds grew to become an impromptu vacationer vacation spot for strange Sri Lankans, who took selfies within the opulent setting. Now the constructing is empty as soon as once more, with protesters having vacated after securing Rajapaksa’s resignation.
It stays to be seen what is going to turn into of the official residence sooner or later; nonetheless, its place within the chronological historical past of Sri Lanka is assured.
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