Wat Prot Sat

Near Wat Prot Sat in Khanon Luang sub-district, was one of the four main customs houses located, called the Royal Customs Posts of the Four Directions. It was the largest of all tax stations, controlling the incoming and outgoing sea vessels. At the customs houses goods were checked for prohibited items and weapons as prescribed by law, urgent dispatches were sent to the capital, and import and export duty was collected from ships coming and going to and from the capital. Customs houses were situated on all important waterways around the capital.

It was here in the last Siam-Burmese War of 1767, that the advance force of the southern Burmese army under Mang Maha Noratha was made to march and established its camp. The Siamese King Ekathat ordered Phraya Taksin (the later King Taksin) to take out a force and attack the Burmese fortification. Phraya Taksin captured the fortification at that time the Burmese received the reinforcements from the southern army. Phraya Taksin found that his forces were insufficient to hold the Burmese fortification, thus abandoned it and reentered the city of Ayutthaya.

In 1670, King Narai gave the head of the Dutch Settlement a small plot of land at Wat Prot Sat to make a garden and a place for holiday or excursion. On this plot which was marked as a 'property’ of the VOC in Siam stood a small brick house. By 1697 it was turned into a place for storing and sawing sappanwood to replace the workshop at Ban Chao Phraya.

Ayutthaya Historical Research