Fiat Tagliero Building

The Fiat Tagliero building in Asmara was put up in 1938 as a service station and is the single most photographed structure in the city: a central tower with two concrete wings some fifteen metres long projecting on either side with nothing holding them up. The story told locally is that the authorities insisted on supporting pillars and the architect had them removed at gunpoint once the concrete cured.

History

The Italian engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi designed the filling station for Dr Tagliero, the Fiat dealer in Asmara, as a futuristic structure resembling an aeroplane, a central tower carrying a pair of 15-metre cantilevered concrete wings, and it was completed in 1938. The local authorities required pillars under each wing, and plans found in 2001 show them, but Pettazzi insisted they were unnecessary and reportedly settled the argument with a gun, in one version threatening to kill the contractor, in another himself; the supports came out and the wings held. The building came through the Second World War, was restored in 2003 and is listed in Category I, so that no part of it may be altered (Wikipedia, Fiat Tagliero Building).

Highlights

• The cantilevered wings - fifteen metres of concrete each side with no supports.
• The central tower - the glazed block the wings project from.
• The 1938 design - futurist architecture applied to a filling station.
• The World Heritage context - part of the inscribed modernist city.

When to go

Year round; Asmara sits at over two thousand metres and the climate is mild. Mornings have the best light on the wings. The building is exterior only.

Good to know

The building is not open and the visit is from the street. Photography in Asmara is restricted and permits are required for many subjects; ask before pointing a camera. Its condition has deteriorated.

Nearby

Cinema Impero is nearby, and Harnet Avenue runs through the centre.

Key facts