The Groote Kerk was not the first church the Dutch built inside Galle Fort, nor the second. The first stood near the Galle Clock Tower. The second, a more elaborate structure, was constructed directly opposite where the present church now stands; only its detached belfry survives, erected in 1701 at the corner of Queen's Street. A bell cast in 1709 still hangs inside it, once rung on Sundays to summon the colonial congregation. The present church sits on ground the Portuguese had claimed first -- the site of a Capuchin convent, built during the earlier period of Portuguese control. Foundations were laid in 1682, but construction stalled for decades. It took de Jong's personal fortune and personal motivation to see the building completed. Each iteration of sacred architecture on this spot reflected a different colonial power imposing its faith on the same piece of ground, each layer built atop the previous one's foundations.

The church follows the Doric style of its period, its cruciform plan echoing the Wolvendaal Church in Colombo, though with shorter transepts. Without a central tower to bear the roof's weight, the builders compensated with two large Dutch gables on the north and south facades, topped with flame-shaped finials and decorated with a double scroll moulding found nowhere else. Inside, the high vaulted ceiling was originally painted blue and studded with golden stars -- a tropical sky rendered in plaster overhead. The roof timbers are ironwood, dense enough to resist the humidity and insects that consume softer materials. The hexagonal wooden pulpit combines calamander panelling with local satinwood, a blend of imported craft tradition and Sri Lankan material that characterizes the fort's architecture as a whole. High pews along the walls were reserved for the Commandeur, the Deacons, and VOC officials -- a rigid hierarchy expressed in seating arrangements.

When the British took control of Galle Fort in 1796, the Groote Kerk adapted rather than closed. The Anglican community was permitted to use the building, and the southern pews were dismantled to accommodate an altar and communion rails for their services -- an arrangement that lasted until 1867. British-era modifications added a stained glass window to the west facade around 1830, and by 1890 a protective canopy was built above it to prevent leaking. A second-hand organ from Colombo had already arrived in 1760; a smaller instrument was placed in the south wing at the start of the 20th century. The church absorbed each change without losing its Dutch bones. That an organ shipped secondhand from the capital in the 18th century still served the congregation speaks to something essential about Galle Fort: nothing here is wasted, and almost nothing is thrown away.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the modern city of Galle outside the fort walls. Inside, the Groote Kerk stood untouched. Built at the fort's highest point -- more than twelve meters above sea level -- and sheltered by the massive Dutch ramparts, the church escaped the wave that destroyed buildings just hundreds of meters away. The timing was fortunate in another sense: the church had recently undergone a complete renovation funded by the Dutch Embassy, officially inaugurated by President Chandrika Kumaratunga on 28 November 2004, just one month before the tsunami struck. That restoration won a 2005 UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award for best practice. The Groote Kerk remains one of the oldest Protestant churches still in active use in Sri Lanka -- a building that began as a colonial imposition but has outlived the colony to become something the community claims as its own.