Asmara – A Mosaic of WORLD Culture and History

Get some PERSPECTIVE

Neighborhoods: Tiravolo, Tsetserat, Sembel, Downtown

City: Asmara Country: Eritrea Region: East Continent: Africa

The car in this photo is an old model Fiat (an Italian automaker). The palm trees and shiba’kha trees laced across Asmara create a metropolis of shade and visual paradise. Asmara’s architecture is nothing short of a cultural melting pot.

Africa’s Secret Modernist City is a newly termed description of the many awe inspiring Modernist style buildings and Art Deco buildings from the past. One of the most infamous sites in Asmara is the Fiat Tagliero building located in the Compobolo district of Tiravolo. It is reminiscent of the Futurist Style designed by Giuseppe Pettazzi in 1938. Originally it was a service station it may now become a disco. Pettazzi an Italian architect along with creating an infamous building and structure has been infamously quoted as saying he would kill the main builder in 1938 if he and the construction workers did not remove the support beams from beneath the wings of the structure. Confident in his design some 70 years later the Fiat building still stands. The wings are the most defining part of his Petazzi’s work. If you look to the left of this photo you will notice a bird also in the shot in flight with wings spread apart just like the Fiat building!

The Irga building is a colorfully simple building. It was erected in the 60’s. It is located next to the Fiat building on the round about circle on the intersection of Sematat Avenue and Mereb Street. Both buildings also have their names spelled out in Tigrigna script (one of the nine languages found in Eritrea). Fiat written at the top, Irga written to the left.

In 1999 the Government of Eritrea created CARP the Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project. Asmara is in the ongoing process of being listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been recognized as a city that is full of historical and worldly sites. CARP is working on ensuring these sites get proper restoration and recognition in the future.

PHOTO: A parked bike at Il Teatro (1920's) now Asmara Theatre (Opera House).

Bicycles are parked throughout Asmara.

The newer urban development designs in the district of Tsetserat are a fusion of the past and the present styles including the developments known as “da German” (known for mostly being owned by Eritreans living in Germany), as well as a neighborhood in the district known as Space. The Sembel Residental Complex (“da Korea”), which was built by a Korean contractor Keangnam Enterprises in 1996, is located in Sembel.

Below are NSEW views of Asmara. I was able to capture these photos from atop the Cathedral in the city center of Asmara on Harnet Avenue (more on the Cathedral later). It is not common knowledge that anyone can get access to the top of this building. You will have to find the guard of the building and ask him if you can climb to the top of the bell tower. It will cost you 10 Nakfa (Eritrea’s currency).

Climbing up is the hardest part.

If you are weary of heights and tight spaces then I highly recommend that you do NOT go up.

PHOTO: Proceed at your own risk.

It requires a lot of maneuvering and adventurism on your part, but the view is unlike any in and around Asmara.

PHOTO: Bells of the interior tower of the Cathedral

The bell toll at 6PM and the sun beginning to set on the city.