The present day Alakeshwara road leads one to the remains of what is known as the ruins of the Alakeswara Palace. To visit the palace, turn in to Alakeshwara road and take the first lane to the left. This road leads you to the site.
The remains and the accompanying ground is now secured, enclosed and well maintained. A board put up by the Archaeological Department briefly describes the place to visitors. This is a vast improvement from the situation in 2003, where as depicted in the images below, the author found the place abandoned, neglected, encroached upon and open for everyday use.
This is now a protected site of the Archaeological Department. The information board put up at the site claims this to be the palace of the Gallant Lord King Nisshanka Alakeshwara or that of his mausoleum. The domestic artifacts found at the site, weighs heavily in favour of this opinion.
Prasad Fonseka in his book “Kotte: The Fortress” indicates this as a dwelling, as the size of the foundations is too small for it to be a palace. A large no of coin and minting molds have also been found at the site, and this may indicate a treasury function for this building.
Photograph below was taken on a later date (around 2006), shows the cleaned up remains. However people were still using the ground area around the archaeologically protected ruins, as a playground to play Cricket, park vehicles and to dry their clothes.
Location Map – (No 3):
