Cyber Ethiopia

One of several interesting foreigners involved in the development of nineteenth century Ethiopia was an Italian, Giacomo Naretti, whose story we turn to today. Naretti was born in Ivrea, north of Turin, in 1839. Arriving in Ethiopia as a young man he won the confidence of Dajazmach Kassa, the future Emperor Yohannes IV (1872-1889), for whom he built a number of important buildings, with which we are this week concerned. Debra Tabor At the monarch's sometime capital, Dabra Tabor, Naretti erected a fine palace of novel design, which the German traveller Gerhard Rolphs likened to a country house in the mountains of Umbria or Emilia. This structure was made of blocks of unworked basalt stone held together with cement. The building had a low gabled roof,

and consisted of two rooms. The rear one gave the Emperor easy access to the rest of the palace complex, while that in the front, in which the traveller was received, measured ten metres long by eight wide, and was illumined by a single door. The principal item of furniture was the monarch's divan, which was decorated with skins and silk carpets, upon which Yohannes, dressed in his shamma, or wrap, sat Turkish-style between two cushions, while two painted white seats with red silk cushions were supplied for visitors. The palace walls were covered with dazzling white shammas, with red borders, while several niches contained beautiful gold and silver jugs and cups of Ethiopian workmanship. Giaccomo Naretti Heruy Giyorgis Another building erected at about this time at Dabra Tabor, apparently with Naretti's help, was the church of Heruy Giyorgis, a large rectangular stone building, some twenty-six metres long by sixteen wide. Adwa-Sellase Naretti was also involved in construction work at Adwa, where he undertook the carpentry for the church of Dabra Berhan Sellase, which was founded by Yohannes in May 1868, while still only Dajazmach Kassa. This place of worship was described by the British traveller Augustus B. Wylde as "the largest and finest" of the Adwa churches. Aksum Naretti likewise constructed Yohannes a small palace-like building at Aksum, which was completed around 1880. Maqale Naretti's most important achievement was, however, Emperor Yohannes's fine castle-like palace and elaborate throne at Maqale. This building was by all account well placed, for it consisted, as Wylde notes, of "a strong fortification" which was "surrounded by a high wall... at least three-quarters of a mile round". It was "loop-holed for musketry", and "strongly defended in several places, and at the gate by guard-houses". There was in addition "an inner wall... about eight hundred yards round, also strongly defended". The palace itself formed the "third line of defence", with "strong walls round the private apartments, stables and store-houses", for gunfire could be "kept up... from the castellated roof and turrets, and all round". The throne of Eperor Yohannes IV at Makale, designed and executed by Giaccomo Naretti The strategic importance of the building was enhanced by the fact that it was located near a "small stream", which ran "within fifty yards of the main gate", so that the palace, if supplied with "plenty of provisions", could "withstand a long siege". "Like an Old-fashioned English Church" One of the first foreign visitors to describe the palace was the British envoy Horace Harrison Smith, who, writing in English-centric terms, says that the building looked "like an old-fashioned English church, with castellated turrets at either corner". On inspecting the structure he was "very much impressed by all he saw", the more so on being told that the woodwork was "entirely" the work of Naretti's own hands". The Englishman continues: "Heavy Double Door" "The basement, which is entered by a heavy double door of Abyssinian wood, forms the banqueting hall, the ceiling of which is supported by solid, well-founded columns of masonry. Leading out of this hall, which occupies the whole of the nave..., is a large audience or council chamber... From the basement one ascends by a double flight of broad, well-built stairs, such as one finds in old English houses. "On the first floor are a number of apartments of various sizes, all well lighted and airy, and the roof forms a fine promenade, from which an extensive panoramic view of the surrounding country is obtained, while the turrets at each corner, and the castellated parapet which surrounds the promenade, have all been designed with a view to the defence of the building". A.B. Wylde Praise for this remarkable building was also voiced by Wylde, who later observed: "A large porch leads to a long room or hall, which takes up the whole width of the building, and its length is quite one hundred and fifty feet; the flat roof is supported by a row of pillars down the whole length, the two side parts being about half the width of the main part, and the entire breadth being about sixty feet. The ceiling is boarded by wanza [Cordia africana] planks, and the large windows with their shutters and the doors are also made of the same material. At the end of this hall is the throne on a raised platform, and two flights of well made wanza wood steps lead to the upper set of apartments, which again open out to the roof, and the four turrets at the corners of the building also make four rooms. At the back of the throne there are a set of apartments... which open out on a well-kept lawn with many shady trees, and some good orange. lime, peach and myrtle bushes". A delightful spot! Naretti, who married Teresa Zander, the half-Ethiopian daughter of the German artist Christoph Zander, lived on to see the establishment of the Italian colony of Eritrea in 1890 and the battle of Adwa in 1896. He died in Asmara in 1899.