Old Colombo Lighthouse

Ceylon was an independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations from 1948 to 1972, that shared a monarch with other dominions of the Commonwealth. In 1948, the British Colony of Ceylon was granted independence as Ceylon. In 1972, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and its name was changed to Sri Lanka.

Colombo ( kə-LUM-boh; Sinhala: කොළඹ, romanized: Koḷam̆ba, IPA: [ˈkoləᵐbə]; Tamil: கொழும்பு, romanized: Koḻumpu, IPA: [koɻumbɯ]) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, the Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments.It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948. In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

Economic History Museum of Sri Lanka (commonly known as the Currency museum or Money museum) is located in the Central Point building, 54 Chatham Street, Colombo Fort (the head office of Central Bank of Sri Lanka).

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (abbr. CBSL; Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව, romanized: Sri Lanka Maha Bankuwa) is the monetary authority of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1950 under the Monetary Law Act No.58 of 1949 (MLA) and in terms of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act No. 16 of 2023, the CBSL is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. The Central Bank has administrative and financial autonomy. The CBSL has two main boards in operation, namely, The Governing Board (GB) The Monetary Policy Board (MPB)

Murder of Red Cross workers in Sri Lanka took place on June 3, 2007 when two minority Sri Lankan Tamil aid workers were detained by two men claiming to be policemen on June 1, 2007. Their bodies were later found in Ratnapura (about 95 kilometers away from the capital).

The former Colombo General Post Office (abbreviated: GPO), at 17 Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo Fort, was the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Post and the office of the Postmaster General for over one hundred years, from 1895 until 2000.

The Old Colombo Dutch Hospital (known as The Dutch Hospital) is considered to be the oldest building in the Colombo Fort area dating back to the Dutch colonial era in Sri Lanka. It is now a heritage building and a shopping and dining precinct.

President's House is the official residence and workplace of the President of Sri Lanka, located at Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since 1804 it had been the residence of British Governors and Governors-General and was known as the "King's House" or the "Queen's House" until Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972. There were 29 Governors who resided here, and there have also been six Presidents who have resided or used it in an official capacity. It was most recently used by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka for state functions until anti-government protestors stormed the compound and occupied it. The Presidential Secretariat functions as the Office of the President, with much of the presidential staff based there.

Lloyd's Building is a prominent five-storey 19th century building located on Sir Baron Jayatilaka Mawatha (formerly Prince Street), Colombo Fort. The building was constructed in 1908 and originally named the 'Freudenberg Building'. It was designed by Edward Skinner and constructed by Clifford Lake and Company.Initially, the main occupant of the building was Freudenberg and Company, an import and export company. Freudenberg and Company was established on 1 July 1873 by Philipp Freudenberg, initially as a coffee trading company but it went onto expand into banking, imports and exports, oil milling, as well as being the agency for a number of German shipping companies, including Norddeutscher Lloyd and the Deutsche Ost-Africa Linie Steamship Company. Freudenberg also served as the Imperial German Consul to Ceylon from 1876 to 1906. By 1917 several floors of the building were leased out to Colombo Apothecaries Company Ltd, Shanghai Life Insurance Company, Morrison and Bell, Standard Oil Company, C. W. Mackie and Company, Clark Young and Company, Vacuum Oil Company and the Consul for the United States of America. In 1918 it was purchased by Aitken Spence (the sole agent of Lloyd's of London in Ceylon) and made it the company's headquarters, renaming it the Lloyd's Building.In 1933, the joint owners of the building, Ian Woodford Aitken, Henry Seymour Jeaffreson, Basil Walter Cuthbert Leefe and Walter Edward Moncrieff Paterson, sold the building to Ceylon and General Properties Ltd. In 1950 ownership of the building was transferred to Badrawathie Fernando Estate Ltd and subsequently in 1957 to United Ceylon Insurance Company Ltd.In 2009 the Central Bank of Sri Lanka purchased the building, to address the needs of the bank's growing office. The renovated building was officially opened on 1 June 2011 by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, and Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor of the Central Bank. This building signifies British architectural heritage of the late 19th century. The richly decorated conference room, elegant marble corridors, classical motifs, quaint woodwork and attractive exterior design of the building symbolize commercial heyday of early 20th century in Sri Lanka.

The Kingsbury, trading as The Kingsbury PLC, formerly the Ceylon Continental Hotel Colombo and the Ceylon Inter-Continental Hotel, is a nine-story hotel located at 48, Janadhipathi Mawatha in the city centre of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was built by U. N. Gunasekera, and is owned by Hotel Services (Ceylon) PLC, which is a subsidiary of Hayleys PLC. It was refurbished and reopened in January 2013.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BoI) (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආයෝජන මණ්ඩලය Shri Lanka Ayojana Mandalaya) is the investment promotion agency of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1992, expanding the scope of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) which was formed in 1978.

The Republic Building is the building that houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in southern wing and the Cabinet Office in its northern wing. It is located in Colombo Fort in close proximity to the President's House, and it was known as the Senate Building until 1972.