Liveramentu Cemetery
Municipal and war grave cemetery in Colombo, Sri Lanka
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liveramentu Cemetery, also locally known as Jawatta Cemetery or the Torrington Cemetery, is a large municipal cemetery, located approximately 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from the Colombo city centre, on Torrington Avenue. It is also the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Sri Lanka.
| Liveramentu Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 Interactive map of Liveramentu Cemetery | |
| Details | |
| Established | Mid 16th Century |
| Location | |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Coordinates | 6.89660°N 79.86901°E |
| Type | British military of WWI (closed) British military of WWII (closed) |
| Owned by | Colombo Municipal Council/Department of National Botanical Gardens |
| Size | 5.1 ha (13 acres) |
| No. of graves | 1,123 (610 war graves)[1] |
| Find a Grave | Liveramentu Cemetery |
It is one of the six Commonwealth war cemeteries in Sri Lanka, and is maintained by the Department of National Botanical Gardens, with funding from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[2][3]
The entrance to the cemetery incorporates a memorial wall, commemorating 346 Commonwealth servicemen and one Dutch serviceman who died while serving in Ceylon during the Second World War (1939–1945), whose graves/bodies could not be found.[4] The cemetery also contains the Liveramentu Cremation Memorial which commemorates 165 Hindu servicemen who died while serving in Ceylon, and who were accorded the last rite required by their religion – committal to fire. The memorial is in the form of a stone pylon crowned with a stone urn, with wing walls inscribed with the servicemen's names.[5] The cemetery also has a memorial commemorating 28 Italian prisoners of war who died and were buried in the country between 1939 and 1945.
The cemetery is situated on the site of a Portuguese church, Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Virgin of Good Deliverance, from which it derives its name.[6] The church was a well known Marian shrine, with a well whose waters were alleged to perform miracles.[7][8] The church was subsequently destroyed by the Dutch. The site was declared a protected archaeological site on 8 July 2005.[9]