Eritrea
N15 20 7 E38 56 9
Date of Inscription: 2017
Criteria: (ii)(iv)
Property : 481 ha
Buffer zone: 1,203 ha
Ref: 1550
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Located at over 2,000 m above sea level, the capital of Eritrea developed from the 1890s onwards as a military outpost for the Italian colonial power. After 1935, Asmara underwent a large scale programme of construction applying the Italian rationalist idiom of the time to governmental edifices, residential and commercial buildings, churches, mosques, synagogues, cinemas, hotels, etc. The property encompasses the area of the city that resulted from various phases of planning between 1893 and 1941, as well as the indigenous unplanned neighbourhoods of Arbate Asmera and Abbashawel. It is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context.
Located on a highland plateau at the centre of Eritrea, Asmara, a Modernist city of Africa is the capital of the country and is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a colonial planned city, which resulted from the subsequent phases of planning between 1893 and 1941, under the Italian colonial occupation. Its urban layout is based mainly on an orthogonal grid which later integrated elements of a radial system. Asmara preserves an unusually intact human scale, featuring eclectic and rationalist built forms, well-defined open spaces, and public and private buildings, including cinemas, shops, banks, religious structures, public and private offices, industrial facilities, and residences. Altogether, Asmara’s urban-scape outstandingly conveys how colonial planning, based on functional and racial segregation principles, was applied and adapted to the local geographical conditions to achieve symbolic meaning and functional requirements. The town has come to be associated with the struggle of the Eritrean people for self-determination, which was pursued whilst embracing the tangible, yet exceptional, evidence of their colonial past.
Asmara’s urban character and strong urban form exhibits a human scale in the relationship between buildings, streets, open spaces, and related activities adapted to the local conditions, which embodies both colonial and post-colonial African life, with its public spaces, mixed-use fabric and place-based material culture. These spaces and use patterns also bear witness to interchange and cultural assimilation of successive encounters with different cultures as well as to the role played by Asmara in building a collective identity that was later instrumental in motivating early efforts for its preservation. Asmara’s urban layout with its different patterns associated to the planning phases, illustrates the adaptation of the modern urban planning and architectural models to local cultural and geographical conditions. The ensembles attesting to the colonial power and to the presence of a strong and religiously diverse local civic society, with its institutional and religious places, the elements of the urban architecture (Harnet and Sematat avenues; Mai Jah Jah park; the walking paths; the old plaques with traces of the street names), the buildings, complexes and facilities resulting from the 1930s programmes (the post office building at Segeneyti Street), the cinemas (Impero, Roma, Odeon, Capitol, Hamasien), the schools, the sport facilities, the garages, the residential complexes and buildings, the villas, the commercial buildings, the factories; the cores of the community quarters (e.g. the Italian quarter and market square and mosque square); the major religious buildings, marking the landscape with bell-towers, spires, and minarets, and the civil and military cemeteries which illustrate the diversity of the populations and of their rituals.
Criterion (ii): Asmara: A Modernist African City, represents an outstanding example of the transposition and materialization of ideas about planning in an African context and were used for functional and segregation purposes. The adaptation to the local context is reflected in the urban layout and functional zoning, and in the architectural forms, which, although expressing a modernist and rationalist idiom, and exploiting modern materials and techniques, also relied on and borrowed heavily from local morphologies, construction methods, materials, skills and labour. Asmara’s creation and development contributed significantly to Eritrea’s particular response to the tangible legacies of its colonial past. Despite the evidence of its colonial imprint, Asmara has been incorporated into the Eritrean identity, acquiring important meaning during the struggle for self-determination that motivated early efforts for its protection.
Criterion (iv): Asmara’s urban layout and character, in combining the orthogonal grid with radial street patterns, and picturesque elements integrating topographical features, taking into account local cultural conditions created by different ethnic and religious groups, and using the principle of zoning for achieving racial segregation and functional organisation, bears exceptional witness to the development of the new discipline of urban planning at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context, to serve the Italian colonial agenda. This hybrid plan, that combined the functional approach of the grid with the picturesque and the creation of scenic spaces, vistas, civic plaza and monumental places, served the functional, civic and symbolic requirements for a colonial capital. The architecture of Asmara complements the plan and forms a coherent whole, although reflecting eclecticism and Rationalist idioms, and is one of the most complete and intact collections of modernist/rationalist architecture in the world.
Suggested Bases:
The Eritrean capital of Asmara is a vibrant mix of Italian and African architecture and culture. It is by far the biggest and most important city of Eritrea and not just the administration center of the country but also the cultural center and the place where every tourist will arrive to the country. Asmara’s main attraction is its World Heritage listed colonial Italian architecture. The palm-lined main street “Harnet Avenue” is colloquially referred to as “Kombishtato” (a creole of the neighbourhood’s original name: Campo di Citta). It is full of cafés, bars, shops and old cinemas, and it makes for a nice mile long stroll between the eastern end of this avenue where the “half” stadium is (you’ll know when you see half a bleacher) and the western end where the Government palace is. Asmara’s colourful and bustling marketplace lies north of the catholic cathedral. It’s a great place to learn how to haggle and buy some souvenirs [read more].
Sitting in the picturesque foothills of northern Eritrea, Keren is the country’s second-largest city and regional capital of the surrounding districts. Approximately 146,000 people belonging to various tribes and ethnic groups call the city home. The dominant tribes — Bilen and Tigre — represent over 80 percent of the city’s population. The most obvious thing you will see upon entering Keren is its beautiful landscape. Rugged mountains dot the outskirts of the city and create a nice setting to explore the rest of what this city has to offer, such as century-old ruins, bustling markets and Italianate architecture. The city grew after the establishment of the Eritrean Railway by the Italian colonial powers. It was an important stop before Asmara, from where the line would continue onto the coast at Massawa. Unfortunately, decades of warfare left the railway in disrepair and it has been largely dismantled. There are plans to eventually restore the line [read more].
Massawa is a port city in coastal Eritrea. Massawa’s oldtown sits on an island (Batsi) that it shares with the country’s busiest deep-sea port (not very busy), a free trade area and as the name indicates; an oldtown consisting of medieval Ottoman style coral buildings separated by narrow alleys as well as an ancient mosque. The island is connected to the mainland via another island called Tualud, both separated by a causeway. On Tualud you will find most “downtown” hotels like the Dahlak, Red Sea, Central, Corallo etc. Tualud also hosts St. Mary’s catholic church and the famous tank monument. From Tualud Island where all the main hotels are, there is another causeway to the mainland, where there isn’t much at all besides the central bus station, Segalet open air cinema and some public administration and residential buildings of varying standard. Massawa’s surrounding islands (the Dahlak and nearby Green Island) offer excellent snorkeling and diving opportunities and have pristine beaches with turquoise waters [read more].
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