The cathedral was created by the Italian government, initially to serve mainly the growing community of
Italians in Eritrea who needed a huge catholic center in the 1920s. The building in the
Lombard Romanesque style was designed by the
Milanese architect Oreste Scanavini and work on it was supervised by Mario Mazzetti from
Montese in the Italian
province of Modena. Construction began in June 1921 and was completed in September 1923. The church was consecrated on 14 October 1923. It is dedicated to
Our Lady of the Rosary. The church is in the form of a nave and two aisles with a transept and three apses. It is 40 metres long, 27 metres wide and has a height of 25 metres to the
lantern, which is surmounted by a bronze statue of the
archangel Gabriel, also interpreted, in spite of the absence of the weaponry with which that archangel is usually represented, as
Michael. A large inscription in the church honours the principal donors who contributed to the cost of the building. They include
Benito Mussolini and other leading figures in Italian political life. The painting by
Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) behind the high altar, representing the
Assumption of Mary, was a gift from King
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Work on the freestanding 52-metre high bell tower began later and was completed in 1925 after the death (on 15 June 1924) of Bishop Carrara. It contains eight bells (an octave from A to A) cast from
Austro-Hungarian guns captured in the
First World War. The largest weighs 3.8 tons. The church was partially damaged during
WW2, but it was quickly repaired in the following years thanks mainly to the contributions of the Italians living in Asmara. An electronic clock was installed in 1987. ==References==