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Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa
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Vincze Miklós
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Vincze Miklós
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Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, was an Italian colony between 1890 and
1941. The city was populated by a large Italian community (53,000 of 98,000
inhabitants in 1939), so the architecture is a unique blend of Italian
modernism and Eritrean style. Here are the most amazing examples.
The city center was rebuilt in various styles during the colonial decades:
Neo-Romanesque, Late Victorian, Art Deco, Cubist, Rationalist, Novecento
and Neo-Baroque, among others.
This Modernist city in Africa was also a dream of Benito Mussolini, because
he believed it would become the capital of the Second Roman Empire.
The city from above
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via David Stanley)*
Hotel Albergo Italia – this was the best in the city when it opened in 1899
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via Wikimedia Commons
<
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albergo_Italia_(8351467973).jpg>)*
A villa built in 1910
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]
*(via Wallpaper
<
http://www.wallpaper.com/gallery/architecture/asmara-exhibition/17050062#16999>)*
The Cathedral of Asmara, built in the Lombard-Romanesque style, with a
Gothic tower, inaugurated in 1922
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]
*(via David Stanley)*
Fascist Party Headquarters, built in 1928
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]
*(via Wallpaper)*
Cinema Impero, an Art Deco-style cinema designed in Mario Messina, built in
1937
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via Charles Roffey)*
Fiat Tagliero building, an airplane-shaped Futurist Style petrol and
service station, designed by Guiseppe Pettazzi, completed in 1938. It has
98ft (30 m) long concrete wings on each side.
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via David Stanley
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/8352534406> and Carsten
ten Brink <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carsten_tb/4044874516>)*
Cinema Augustus, 1938
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]
*(via Wallpaper
<
http://www.wallpaper.com/gallery/architecture/asmara-exhibition/17050062#16999>)*
The Old Bristol pensionA service station designed by Carlo Marchi and Carlo
Montalbetti in the 1930sThe former City Sanitation Office, now a garageThe
Nda Mariam Orthodox Church, with an impressive mosaic by the Italian
painter Nenne Sanguineti Poggi during the 1950s[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A
Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via Charles Roffey
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfred/5359805592>)*
Cinema Roma
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via fofto SU foto <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotocellula/6906338543>)*
Asmara Town Hall[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in
Africa]EXPAND[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]
EXPAND
*(via The Come Up Show
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thecomeupshow/5811659597> and Charles Roffey
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfred/42267437/in/set-926274>)*
Villa VeneziaA bowling alley built in the 1950s to entertain American
troops stationed in the city
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via David Stanley
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/8352536336/in/set-72157632449528564>)*
A mosaic on a cotton factory
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via Charles Roffey
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfred/44228587/in/set-926274>)*
Odeon Cinema
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via Carsten ten Brink
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carsten_tb/4044135195/in/set-72157603721592611>)*
IRGA building, constructed in 1961, designed by Carlo Mazzetti
*(via David Stanley
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/8352530432/in/set-72157632449528564>)*
Inside the Central Post OfficeAn Art Deco villa, now used as the World Bank
Building in the countryOn the streets
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
[image: Asmara, Eritrea: A Forgotten Piece of Italy in Africa]EXPAND
*(via David Stanley
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/sets/72157632449528564>,
Charles
Roffey <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfred/sets/926274>, Carsten ten
Brink <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carsten_tb/2283795462>, Kate Brown
<
https://www.flickr.com/photos/katebrown/3374140875/in/set-72157615745590894>
and fofto
SU foto <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotocellula/6906339363>)*
Bonus: People watching a football game inside the television room of Casa
degli Italiani, a restaurant in Asmara
Received on Fri Nov 07 2014 - 20:48:13 EST