| The parish Church of St John the Baptist in Periyavilan is one of the prominent Churches and one of the finest Catholic buildings in the Northern Province. It is situated at the centre of the village and is focal point of many activities in the village.
The main part of the present St John the Baptist’s, Periyavilan was constructed in 1890 during the period when Bishop Andre-Theophile Melizan, O M I, was Bishop of Jaffna. The original Church at the present site was much older and was a very modest building with alter at the Western end, nearest the Roads junction. The present Church was substantially extended in the early part of the last century in three stages. The present high rise frontage was added in the early 1940s and the bell-tower partly completed in the early 20th century had its present crowning top added much later in the 1990s.
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