Eritrea is the African country whose capital Asmara is famous for its Italian modernist architecture.
Asmara expanded significantly during the period of Italian colonial rule, especially in the 1930s. Italian architects and planners introduced buildings and urban forms associated with Futurism, Rationalism and modernist design. Surviving examples include cinemas, commercial buildings, churches and service stations, giving parts of the city a distinctive architectural character.
UNESCO inscribed Asmara: A Modernist City of Africa on the World Heritage List in 2017. The designation recognizes the city’s unusually coherent collection of 20th-century buildings and its importance in the history of modern urban planning in Africa.
Eritrea lies along the Red Sea, with a coastline that includes the Dahlak Archipelago. Asmara is inland on the Eritrean plateau, so it is not the country’s main seaport. Massawa, a much hotter coastal city, has a separate historical and architectural identity.