The committee appreciated the outstanding value of Asmara's 19th and early 20th century modernist architecture designed by colonial-era Italian architects and immersed in an African highland environment.
That distinctive, futuristic architecture includes an art deco bowling alley with colored glass windows and a gas station that resembles an airplane (pictured on top). Both date back to the city's time as part of colonial Italy during the reign of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from 1936 to 1941.
It was the designs of architects that were rejected in conservative European cities that found a place in Asmara at a time when approximately half of the city's population was Italian. Indeed, back then Asmara was dubbed 'Piccola Roma,' or 'Little Rome.'
The modernist architecture of other Eritrean cities was destroyed during a decades-long war of independence from Ethiopia. But Asmara survived and was declared a national monument by the government in 2001.
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