ETHIOPIA - THE CITIES

which affords a distant view of Lake Tana, 4 smaller
towers, and a battlemented parapet.
Archangel Michael himself stood before the large
wooden gates with a flaming sword drawn.
GONDAR is a Royal and ancient historical city
of Ethiopia and is in the list of UNESCO’S World
Heritage Sites. It stands at an elevation of 2,300m
on a basaltic ridge from which streams flanking
the town flow to Lake Tana, 24klm south and was
the capital of Ethiopia from 1632 to 1855. It is the
home of many Emperors and Princess who lead
the country from the 12 th c to the last decade of
the 20 th c. To mention just a few, Emperor Suseneos,
Emperor Fasiledes, Empress Mentwab, Iyasu
I, Tewodros II, Empress Taitu. It is the home of the
highest mountain in Ethiopia, Ras Dashen, and the
Simien Mountains National Park.
Nestled in the foothills of the Simien Mountains in
NW Ethiopia, became the capital of Ethiopia during
the reign of Emperor Fasilidas (1632-1667), who
built the first of a number of castle-like palaces to
be found here. He established a tradition that was
followed by most of his successors, whose buildings
greatly enhanced the city’s grandeur.
Until the 16 th c, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia
usually had no fixed capital town, instead living in
tents in and temporary royal camps as they moved
around their realms, while their family, bodyguard
and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down
nearby trees for firewood.
Gondar, which rose to prominence after Ethiopia
went through a long period without a fixed capital,
emerged in the 17 th c as the country’s largest
settlement. The city was an important administrative,
commercial, religious, and cultural center. It
was famous for its sophisticated aristocratic life,
its church scholarship, and its extensive trade,
which took its merchants to Sudan and the port of
Massawa, as well as to the rich lands south of the
Blue Nile. Gondar was also noted for the skill of its
many craftsmen.
The city retained its pre-eminence until the middle
of the 19 th c, when Emperor Tewodros II moved his
seat of Government to Debre Tabor and later to
Mekdela. As a result, Gondar declined greatly in
importance and was subsequently looted in the
1880s by the Sudanese Dervishes. By the early
19 th c the city was a mere shadow of its former self.
Most of Gondar’s famous castles and other imperial
buildings nevertheless survived the ravages
of time and together constitute one of Ethiopia’s
most fascinating antiquities.
FASIL GHEBBI - GONDAR’S CASTLE dubbed
the Ethiopian Camelot, is not a single castle, but
instead is the name given to the entire complex
of castles and palaces in the area. The oldest and
most impressive of Gondar’s imperial structures
is the two-storied palace of Emperor Fasilidas,
built of roughly hewn brown basalt stones held
together with mortar. Said to have been the work
of an Indian architect, the building-has a flat roof,
a rectangular tower in the south-west corner,
It is easy to imagine the intrigue and pageantry
that took place back in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, when Gondar, then the Ethiopian
capital, was home to a number of emperors and
warlords, courtiers and kings. One only has to stroll
through the banqueting halls and gaze down from
the balconies of the many castles and palaces here
to drift back into a long-ago world of battles and
court conspiracies.
Although Gondar was by any definition a city, it
was not a melting pot of diverse traditions, nor
Ethiopia’s window to the larger world, according
to Donald Levine. “It served rather as an agent for
the quickened development of the Amhara’s own
culture. And thus it became a focus of national
pride not as a hotbed of alien custom and immorality,
as they often regard Addis Ababa today, but
as the most perfect embodiment of their traditional
values.
DEBRE BIRHAN SELASSIE CHURCH
On top of a hill at the edge of Gondar lies what is
considered one of the most important churches
in Ethiopia. Debre Birhan Selassie was built by
Emperor Eyasu II (also known as Birhan Seged,
“He to Whom the Light Bows”) in the 17 th c. It was
named Debre Birhan, “Mountain of Light,” after
the Emperor’s nickname, as well as in honor of the
church of the same name in Shewa. Nearly every
inch of the church’s interior has been beautifully
painted. 80 cherubic angels look down from the
ceiling while saints and demons line its walls.
It was miraculously spared in the Mahdist War of
the 1880’s when, according to legend, a swarm
of bees held off the invading soldiers, and the
The ceiling, with its rows and rows of winged
cherubs representing the omnipresence of God,
draws most eyes. There’s space for 135 cherubs,
though 13 have been erased by water damage.
Aside from the cherubs the highlights have to be
the devilish Bosch-like depiction of hell. A large
stone wall with 12 rounded towers surrounds the
compound and these represent the 12 apostles.
The larger 13 th tower (entrance gate) symbolizes
Christ and is shaped to resemble the Lion of Judah.
Fasil Ghebbi and the other remains in Gondar
city demonstrate a remarkable interface between
internal and external cultures, with cultural
elements related to Ethiopian Orthodox Church,
Ethiopian Jews and Muslims, expressed not only
through the architecture of the sites but also
through the handicrafts, painting, literature and
music that flourished in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. After its decline in the 19 th c,
the city of Gondar continued to be an important
commercial and transport hub for NW Ethiopia.
GONDAR IN THE 20 TH CENTURY
After the military occupation of Ethiopia by the
Kingdom of Italy in 1936, Gondar was further developed
under Italian occupation, and the Comboni
Missionaries established in 1937 the Latin Catholic
Apostolic Prefecture of Gondar, which would be
suppressed after its only prefect’s death in 1951.
During the Second World War, Mussolini’s Italian
forces made their last stand in Gondar in November
1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces six
months before. The area of Gondar was one of the
main centers of activity of Italian guerrilla against
the British forces until summer 1943.