Asmara, Eritrea

Fiat Tagliero Building, the most prestigious art deco building in Italian Asmara

Asmara was the capital of Italian Eritrea in the first half of the XX century. It was called Asmara italiana in Italian language and the inhabitants were called Asmarini. Italian Asmara [1] was under Italian control from 1882 until February 1941: officially it disappeared in 1947 after the "Peace Treaty" following WWII when Italy lost all the colonies.

History

Italian Asmara as a city was practically created by the Italians, when it was chosen as Eritrea's capital in 1897. Italian Asmara was even called in the late 1930s with the nickname Piccola Roma (little Rome), because looked like a typical small Italian city, with most inhabitants being Italians.

When in the late 19th century the first Italians arrived in the area where it is now Asmara, they found a small Christian village of nearly 200 inhabitants. The missionary Remedius Prutky had passed through Asmara in 1751, and described in his memoirs that a church built there by Jesuit priests 130 years before was still intact.

Asmara, which was then part of the independent kingdom of Medri Bahri, was ruled by Ras Alula who had received the title of governor of Medri Bahri from the emperor of Ethiopia.

Asmara acquired importance when it was occupied by Italy in 1889 and was made the capital city of Eritrea in preference to Italian Massaua by Governor Ferdinando Martini in 1897. In the early 20th century, a railway line was built to the coast, passing through the town of Ghinda, under the direction of Carlo Cavanna. In both 1913 Asmara Earthquake and 1915 Asmara Earthquake the city suffered only slight damage in those large earthquakes.

Italian Asmara attracted a small community of Italian Jews, that grew in the 1930s. The first Jews to settle in Eritrea were Yemenite Jews who began arriving in the late 19th century, attracted by new commercial opportunities driven by Italian colonial expansion, which saw the colonization of Eritrea at the time. In 1906, the Asmara Synagogue was completed in Asmara. It included a main sanctuary which could seat up to 200 people, classrooms, and a small Jewish cemetery. Indeed in the 1930s, the Jewish community was bolstered when many European Jews emigrated to Eritrea to escape Nazi persecution in Europe.

In the late 1930s the Italians changed the face of the town, with a new structure and new buildings: Asmara was called Piccola Roma (Little Rome). While Eritrea was under Italian colonial rule, architecturally conservative early-20th-century Europeans (mostly Italians) used Asmara "to experiment with radical new designs", creating masterpieces of art deco like the Fiat Tagliero Building. Nowadays the major part of buildings in Asmara are of Italian origin, and shops still have Italian names (e.g., Bar Vittoria, Pasticceria moderna, Casa del formaggio, and Ferramenta).

Indeed the city acquired an Italian architectural look in the 1930s[2]

Today Asmara is worldwide known for its early 20th-century Italian buildings, including the Art Deco Cinema Impero, "Cubist" Africa Pension, eclectic Orthodox Cathedral and former Opera House, the futurist Fiat Tagliero Building, neo-Romanesque Roman Catholic Cathedral, and the neoclassical Governor's Palace. The city is littered with Italian colonial villas and mansions. Most of central Asmara was built between 1935 and 1941, so effectively the Italians designed and enabled the local Eritrean population to build almost an entire city, in just six years.[3]

Asmara was populated by a numerous Italian community and consequently the city acquired an Italian architectural look. The city of Asmara (called in the Italian Empire: Asmara italiana) had a population of 98,000, of which 53,000 were "Italian Eritreans" according to the Italian census of 1939. This fact made Asmara the main "Italian town" of the Italian empire in Africa. In all Eritrea the Italians were 75,000 in that year.[4]

The official language was the Italian language, while the currency was the "Tallero Eritreo" until 1921 and later the "Italian East African lira". The city was mostly Christian, with Catholicism being the most numerous faith (64% in 1940, including the Italians): the government built in 1922 one of the best churches in Africa, the Asmara Roman Catholic Cathedral (called "St Joseph's Cathedral").

Asmara was connected to Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) by the Via della Vittoria, a fully asphalted new road of 1,077 km built between 1936 and 1939 and served by a weekly bus service that connected the two capitals in four days. A huge modern hospital (called "Hospitem, Ospedale italiano" (called now "Hospital Italiano" and still working with another Italian Hospital called "Hospital Regina Elena") was inaugurated in 1937. Asmara had one of the first airports in eastern Africa and was connected to Italy by the worldwide famous "Linea dell'Impero", an international flight of nearly 7,000 km between Rome and Mogadiscio (capital of Italian Somalia).

The first sport activities and structures were made in Italian Asmara in the 1930s: it was even created a football tournament linked to the Italian championships. Even a "Circuit of Asmara" was created in 1937: the first car race in eastern Africa. Furthermore, many industrial investments were made by Italy in Asmara (and surrounding areas of Eritrea),[5] but the beginning of World War II stopped the blossoming industrialization (mainly in the metal-mechanic sector) of the area.

Italy was defeated in 1941, and the British administered the city from then until 1952. Most Italians moved away from the city in those years: after 1942 started a very difficult decade for the Italians of Asmara.[6] In 1952, the United Nations resolved to federate the former colony under Ethiopian rule, but in 1991 Eritrea obtained the independence after a long struggle.

See also

Notes

  1. Map of Italian Asmara in 1929
  2. Chapter Eritrea: Italian architecture in Asmara (in Italian)
  3. "Reviving Asmara". BBC Radio 3. 2005-06-19. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
  4. Eritrea, la colonia primigenia
  5. Italian Eritrea industries
  6. Eros Chiasserini. "Eritrea: Gli anni difficili (1941-1951)" ()

Bibliography

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