The Kandy House is a nine-room,[1] 200-year-old[2] manor house which was built by the last Chief Minister[3] of the
Kandyan Kingdom in 1804. It was fully restored and opened in 2005 as an upmarket boutique hotel,[4] situated 20 minutes from
Kandy.[5] Described as a "showcase of the island's architectural renaissance",[6] it has established a reputation as "the best small hotel in
Sri Lanka".[7]
History
The Kandy Hotel is also known as "Amunugama
Walauwa" or "Ratwatte Walauwa"[1] was built in 1804[8] by the Chief Minister, Ratwatte Adigar, to the last King of
Kandy. The
kingdom at that time forbade any but the
royal residences to use roofing tiles but the ambitious
RatwatteAdigar, had the nerve to build himself a replica palace with two sprawling stories of terracotta tiles. Two hundred years on,
Geoffrey Bawa's protégé Channa Daswatte began work on a sensitive restoration[9] that has kept the essence of the villa intact but brought it into the 21st century.
[10]