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The segment you will see in a few moments is surprising.
It is a visit to an african town, Asmara, In Eritrea.
Eritrea was an italian colony, from the end of 1800 to 1941.
And during this period italian architects built hundreds of palaces, villas,
churches, mosquees, apartments, gas stations and so on.
More than 60 years have elapsed from that period but most of these buildings
are still there.
As in the sleeping beauty story.
These buildings have remained intact through all the changes
and a visitor to Asmara gets this sensation of travelling back in time
and to discover a slice of Italy that has been transplanted in Africa,
Lorenzo Pinna has dived into this particular atmosphere and this is his
reportage,
produced in collaboration with Caterina Borelli
It's an extraordinary collections of architectonic jewels of the first half of
1900.
We are in Africa, in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea,
at a height of 2400 meters above sea level,
on a high plateau that towers on the Red Sea.
In this unlikely place a dramatic series of conflicts
and wars has paradoxically preserved
unscathed, for more than half a century, a surprising
artistic heritage that only now is rediscovered and studied.
An heritage that is closely related to our country (Italy).
It was during the short and tragic adventure of the italian
colonialism in Eastern Africa, between the end of 1800 and
1941, that the capital of Eritrea was built. Asmara was a
blank sheet where the italian architects, removed from
their mother country's pressures and tradition, were able to design a utopian
city.
This is a short visit to a city many experts have defined
the most beautiful in Africa.
Our visit starts with the gas station Fiat Tagliero, a symbol of Asmara,
and one of the most perfect example of the futuristic
architecture,
a celebration of flight, of speed, of modernity.
In a more classical style is built the post office that
seems frozen in time by an impossible time machine.
Marbles and columns frame the counters for mailing
operations,
while the light enters through many round windows reminding of clocks or of old
phone dials.
Even the table used to fill postal forms is original,
while pillar-boxes are still working and cover an entire wall.
On main street and close to it are located many movie theatres with evocative
names.
This movie theatre is the "Impero"(Empire) another of Asmara's
symbols.
This was the style of movie theatres in the 30s with forefronts
decorated by windows, marbles, lights and big signs.
This other movie theratre is the "Roma"as well built in the 30s.
Again a large forefront and the big sign.
In the interior the floor and the counter are still authentic.
There is also a coffee shop that serves expressos and cappuccinos worth the
italian originals.
The theatre is huge, with a parterre and a gallery. as it was the style in Italy before
the multiplex fashion.
The ideal city, that should feel familiar thousands of miles from Italy,
couldn't come without a theatre.
An elegant staircase, lined with trees and flowerbeds, leads to a porch in a
renaissance style.
The interior could accomodate 750 viewers, in a parterre
and in three rows of galleries.
The ceiling is decorated with 8 dancing girls surrounded by 8 peacocks
interwined with wreaths and veils and reveals the liberty style of the painter
Saverio Fresa.
The italian architects who designed Asmara , dealt with every side of the
urban life.
The different religious cults.
This is the catholic cathedral of Asmara which reminds a similar style from
Lombardy (an italian region).
Even in the 20s, when the cathedral was built , it was not considered a
masterpiece.
Red bricks are the hallmark of the Otrhodox Church too.
It a massive building with simple geometrical shapes, lined by two tall
towers that,
according to the designer, should remind a few elements of the local architecture,
as the conic roofs of eritrean hutches.
The great Mosque, where the italian and local architectural traditions interwine,
is the best religious building of Asmara.
The forefront with a porch is more in the italian tradition
while the interior, a maze of columns , arches and
decorations, towered by a dome built in glass and concrete, is more islamic.
In Asmara Italians also built a synagog, small and simple, where the jew
community met.
From the building frenzy that caught the italian architects in Eritrea came out
many other structures.
The palaces of power as this imposing and classical building ,
the seat of the Government, whose entrace is this grand staircase.
The hotels.
This is the Selam hotel , considered one of the best examples of the "rationalist
architecture".
A style distinguished by simple and geometrical shapes with no unnecessary
decorations.
A simplicity replicated in the interior rooms, preserved, until today, with no
major changes.
The railway station. From here a train left to Massua, on the Red Sea.
It is still possibile to travel on old train carriages with wooden benches.
Asmara ,as it was designed and built by the italians was a city for the colonizers.
This is the "villa" section where the rich and the powerful built their mansions.
In a maelstrom of architectural styles it is possible to encounter villas in modernist
style as this one.
A geometry quite new and revolutionary for the time.
Or more traditional villas with brick towers of different shapes.
Or classical villas...
The Asmara of Eritreans was in another section,
a slum that with a few changes, is still there today, more than half a century after
the italian colonizers defeat.
A slum that is a symbol of the many problem Eritrea as many other developing
countries have to cope with.
Yet notwithstanding all these problems the Eritrean Government
with the help of a few international organizations decided to preserve
the architectural heritage left by the italian colonizers.
There are at least 400 significant architectural buildings here in Asmara.
The project is to preserve them.
We have delimited the boundaries of the historical centre,
an area of about 4-5 square kilometers and a buffer zone as large.
In these two zones we hope to implement a plan of preservation and restoration
To preserve an historic part of a town, defending it
from real estate developpers is tough enough in a rich country,
it's is easy to guess how much more difficult this would be for a developping
country
where other priorities, than saving a cultural heritage, are much more
imperative.
A glimmer of hope is that Amsara might be included in the Unesco list on the
cultural heritage of mankind.
This would make it easier to find the necessary funds.
In the meantime the Eritrean Capital means, espacially for the italian visitor, an
unique experience.
A place faraway but at the same time very familiar.
Not only for its architecture but also for small traditions like the coffee shops,
the "pasticcerie" and the ice creams.