in Asmara, Eritrea (1923)
Eritrea was
Italy's first African colony. Its first capital,
Massawa, contains a large amount of early Italian colonial architecture, characterized by historicism and inspiration from
Venetian Gothic and
Italian Neoclassical architecture. The colonial architecture and orthogonal street grid of
Asmara, the colony's second capital, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. Much of the city's colonial architecture dates to the fascist era, during which
Benito Mussolini encouraged architects and planners to transform the city into a "Little Rome".
Somalia also contains a wide range of Italian colonial architecture, dating back to its
colonial era. In
Mogadishu, the residence of most of the colony's eventual 50,000 Italian residents, colonial architects undertook large planning projects and erected monuments such as the still-extant triumphal arch dedicated to
Umberto I, the largely destroyed
Cathedral of Mogadiscio, and various government buildings. The Italian-built
Villa Somalia remains Somalia's presidential residence. Unlike colonial schemes in Libya and Eritrea, Italian colonial authorities built within existing cities in Somalia, not building new villages or towns for settlers. ) in Libya Before the consolidation of
Italian Cyrenaica and
Italian Tripolitania, Libya's colonial masters undertook significant building projects in Italian styles, such as the construction of
Tripoli's Cathedral, built in a Venetian Gothic style. Following the founding of
Italian Libya,
Italian Fascist architecture became the standard for the massive infrastructural and settlement-related projects that Mussolini's Italy undertook. In cities such as
Tripoli and
Benghazi, colonial architects and urban planners undertook large-scale urban projects, such as the construction of Benghazi's monumental
Lungomare (sea-walk), new urban districts for Italian settlers, and Catholic religious buildings, including
Benghazi Cathedral. The fascist government's constructions were usually characterized by use of the
Italian Rationalist and
Neoclassical styles. Starting in 1938, the colony's Public Works Department sponsored the building of 27 new villages meant for Italian settlement, mostly in
Cyrenaica, which epitomized a Rationalism informed by local Arab architectural mores.
Giovanni Pellegrini, one of the most prominent designers of these agrarian villages, attempted to synthesize Arab and Italian architecture to settlements best fitted to Cyrenaica's arid climate.
Italy's occupation of the Dodecanese bore a significant amount of modernist and art deco buildings throughout the archipelago. Colonial architects also constructed several new towns and villages, such as Portolago, now known as
Lakki. Unlike many of the built remnants of Italian colonialism in Africa, Italian architecture in the Dodecanese often remains in good repair. Italy's brief
colonial undertaking in Albania resulted in a prominent collection of Rationalist buildings, including the
Bank of Albania, the
Prime Minister's Office, and the
National Theatre. ==See also==