Gondar and Lake Tana. A comprehensive guide

138 Pages·2015·71.454 MB·English

by  Gian Paolo Chiari

G O N D A R
and LAKE TANA
Ill
GONDAR
and LAKE TANA
Gondar and Lake Tana offer a wealth of historic sites and artwork, many of
them off the beaten tourist tracks and still unstudied. Castles, churches,
and paintings provide visitors with a sense of the cultural and artistic
splendour that made this region famous in the world from a remote past
and make travelling today through the region's history and natural
resources an extraordinary experience. With the intent of facilitating the
discovery of such a heritage, this guide is divided into three main sections:
Gondar, Gorgora, and Bahir Dar. Each section deals in detail with the key
monuments and with sightseeing in the area, providing all key information
on travel, access, accommodations, and transport.
arada books
ISBN 978-999448662-5
1111111111111111 II II IIII
9 789994 486625
Gian Paolo Chiari
ARADA BOOKS
SECOND EDITION 2015
GONDAR
FIRST PUBLISHED IN ETHIOPIA IN 2012 BY ARADA BOOKS
ISBN: 978-99944-8662-5
TEXT, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND GRAPHICS COPYRIGHT© GIAN PAOLO CHIARI, 2012
COVER PHOTO:
ARCHANGEL RAPHAEL, PAINTING ON CANVAS, DAGA ESTEPHANOS CHURCH.
and LAKE TANA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR
TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL,
INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION STORAGE
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9
INTRODUCTION 10
GONDAR 20
TOUR INFORMATION I 21
HISTORY 30
ON SITE 41
Fasil Ghebbi 40
The Churches of Fasil Ghebbi 59
SOUTH OF FASIL GHEBBI 64
Jan Tekel Addababay 64
Addababay lyasus Church 65
ltchege Bet Quarter 61
Market 66
Old Fit Quarter 69
Addis Alem - Muslim Quarter 70
NORTH OF FASIL GHEBBI 71
Ras Gimp 71
Medhane Alem Church 73
Italian Colonial Architecture 74
Abuna Bet Quarter 76
Around Gondar 77
Dabra Berhan Selassie Church 77
Bath of Fasiladas 83
Qusquam 85
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ARADA GUIDES I A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO GONDAR AND LAKE TANA
CONTENTS
Ledeta Maryam Church 94 Haile Selassie's Palace, Dabra Zeit 166
Fasiladas' Bridges 96 Wayto Community 167
Wolleka - The Falasha Village 99 Mikael Church 169
SOUTH OF GONDAR 101 THE ISLANDS 170
Azazo Takla Haymanot and Ganata lyasus 101 Dabra Maryam Island 170
Tsadda Gziabier Ab Church 105 Kebran Island 172
Bahiri Gimp 108 Entons Island 178
Danqaz 110 Narga Island 179
Emfraz 113 Daq Island 187
Daga Island 190
GORGORA 130 Rema Island 194
TOUR INFORMATION 131 Metsle Fasiladas Island 198
Tana Island 199
HISTORY 132
Krestos Samra Church 204
ON SITE 132
Chakla Manzo Island 206
Dabra Sina Church 132
Zage Peninsula 208
Italian Lighthouse 140
Angara Maryam Island 141 SOUTH OF BAHIR DAR 221
Birgida Island 141 Tisisat - Blue Nile's Falls and Alata Bridge 221
Mandaba Monastery 143 Dengay Debalo Maryam 226
Giyorgis Island 144 Yababa 228
Maryam Gimp 145 Gimp Giyorgis 230
Jabara Maryam Island 150 Gimp Maryam 231
Galila Island 150 Gimp Kidane Mehret 232
Selassie Church and Quarry 152 Martula Maryam Church 232
Lake Zangana 237
BAHIR DAR 154 Gish Abay 237
TOUR INFORMATION 155 Abba Gis Gimp 240
The Gragn's Stela 242
HISTORY 162
ON SITE 163 EAST OF BAHIR DAR 242
Lakeside Walkway 163 Robit Baata Church 242
Giyorgis Church 163 Qorata 243
The House of the Portuguese 164 Zara Mikael Church and Religious School 246
Market 165 Wanzaye Hot Springs 247
Hippos 165
Martyrs' Memorial 165 ANALYTICAL INDEX 258
-
6 7
: Acknowledgements :
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my companions throughout
the entire fieldwork, Ashenafi (Ashu) Bisenebit Tafere, research assistant
and interpreter, for his extraordinary aptitude and kindness; and Nathnael
(Nati) Eshetu, driver, who took us to our destinations safely, skilfully, and
courteously. I would like to acknowledge the many people who have helped
me in Gondar, Bahir Dar, and Lake Tana region by kindly contributing
information, memories, and stories. Special thanks to Anna Dies, manager of
Medir tour operator, for the very friendly and professional logistic support;
Emanuele Ragni, for his passionate contribution to the graphic design of
this book; Yohannes Hagos Kebede, for his advice and encouragement; my
old friend Dawit Kahsay, for his usual great help; David Rifkind, Florida
International University, and Sandro di Gangi, A +O Archioperaio, for
kindly sharing with me the results of their researches on colonial Gondar; and
Zemene Hailu, for his guiding help in Qorata. Very special thanks to Sheila
McMillen for her kind and professional effort to improve the quality of my
work by proofreading and editing the manuscript.
9
\
0 nee upon a time, in a faraway village near a vast lake, there lived a
girl of great understanding and prudence and the utmost beauty. She
was so handsome that the meaning of the name she was given by the
people was 'Oh, how beautiful!'. A king heard about the girl and wanted to
meet her. He immediately fell in love with her, and they went to live together
in a magnificent castle on a very high mountain. He was a very rich and
GONDARAND
powerful ruler, and after he died she became empress, the first to hold such a
I title. Despite the appearance, this story is not a fairy tale. Love, war, political
intrigues, and murders are part of the fascinating history of the rulers of the
LAKE TANA Kingdom of Gondar, which thrived in northwestern Ethiopia between the
1630s and the 1760s. The above-mentioned king was Bakaffa, who was not
only the third ruler of Gondar, but also the emperor of Ethiopia between 172 l
and 1730; and Berhan Mogasa was the beautiful girl, whose nickname in the
local language was Mentewab. Their castle can still be seen in Gondar, which
was the heart of the kingdom as well as the capital of the Ethiopian Empire for
the 130 years that followed its foundation, in the 1630s. Since then, the fame
of the city has spread all over the world, a fame associated with the name of its
founder, Emperor Fasiladas, and its breathtaking castles.
The establishment of Gondar as a capital marked the completion of the process
that shifted the empire's centre from the Shewa Kingdom to the Lake Tana
region at the end of the 16th century. Two main reasons motivated that shift.
The first was the invasion of Shewa by the Muslim army led by Ahmad Ibn
Ibrahim Al Ghazi, nicknamed "the Gragn" (left handed, in the Amharic
language), a religious and military chief of the Sultanate of Adal (located
in present-day eastern Ethiopia, Djibuti, and northwestern Somalia) who
launched a holy war against the Christian Ethiopian Empire in the 1520s. 1
The second was the urgent need to strengthen the southwestern border of the
empire against the mounting pressure of the Oromo people, whose northward
migration had reached the Abay (Blue Nile) River. It was under Emperor
Sarsa Dengel that the empire's centre of gravity first moved northwest. During
his reign, between 15 63 and 1597, he used the Lake Tana region as a base from
which to halt the advances of the Oromo from the south and the Ottoman Turks
from the Red Sea, and to launch his military campaigns to crush rebellions or
subjugate people, as in the case of the Beta Israel people Qews) in the Semien
Mountains and the Agaw.2 In this region he fixed one of his imperial residences
at Gubay in 1574,3 near Emfraz and not on a campsite, as had been the case of
0.1 Castle of Fasiladas northeastern doors.
11
I
I
ARADA GUIDES I A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO GONDAR AND LAKE TANA INTRODUCTION
those wandering capitals that Ethiopian emperors had previously established. : Gondarine Architectural Style :
Instead, he built a palace, described in the royal chronicles of the time as a
No one, to date, has provided an adequate explanation of the style of the
castle, beautifully constructed and of admirable appearance.4 The place is now
abovementioned castle built by Emperor Sarsa Dengel in Guzara, a building
called Guzara, and the magnificent Guzara Castle is included in this guide
that is considered to be one of the possible models for the later and more famous
as one of the key monuments in the region to visit. The power shift in favour of
Castle of Fasiladas in Gondar. For certain, the introduction into the region
the Lake Tana region was continued and consolidated by Sarsa Dengel and by
of key architectonic and stylistic elements was facilitated by the Jesuits who
those who held tl1e imperial title after him. In 1604 Emperor Za Dengel had his
accompanied and followed the military expedition led by Cristovao da Gama
court at Danqaz,5 where his successor, Emperor Susenyos, moved the capital
in 15 41 to help the force of Ethiopian Emperor Galawdewos against Ahmad
at the end of the 1610s and built his castle a few years later.6 To Susenyos, who
"the Gragn". Most of iliose Jesuits were Portuguese based in the territories of
reigned between 1607 and 1632, are to be ascribed the foundation of Gorgora
Portugal's India, a fact that helps explain ilieir bringing in of building techniques
as a capital and the building of another historic landmark in the region,
and decorative patterns of European and Indian origin. They made extensive
Maryam Gimp, an interesting and magnificent architectural combination of
use, for instance, of stone and lime mortar, which they largely employed in
royal palace and Cailiolic cailiedral built just after the emperor abandoned the
the construction of ilie above-mentioned Maryam Gimp, lyasus Church
Coptic Orthodox Church and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1621-22.
in Danqaz, and the reconstruction of ilie impressively beautiful Martula
He also had an outstanding palace built at Ganata lyasus, near Gondar,
Maryam. The building of these three important churches was all carried out
with a royal pavilion standing in the centre of a pool amid beautiful gardens.
at the height of the Jesuits' power in tl1e region and in Ethiopia, between the
Susenyos' successor and son, Fasiladas, was the first to mark the permanent
conversion ofEmperor Susenyos to Catholicism and their subsequent expulsion
character of his capital Gondar by building a castle there, followed in this by
from the country immediately after Susenyos' death in 1632. In addition, the
Emperors Yohannes I, lyasu I, Dawit III, Bakaffa, Iyasu II, and Empress
Jesuits opened the way for the immigration of Indian craftsmen, such as the
Mentewab, the famous and beautiful girl mentioned at the opening of the
masterbuilder who would have designed ilie Castle ofFasiladas, according to a
chapter, who also had another palace and a church built at Qusquam, outside
Yemeni Ambassador visiting Gondar in 1648,8 or those who, according to the
Gondar. The absolute key role played by Gondar as a capital did not prevent
well-informed Jesuit Jerome Lobo, Emperor Susenyos had 'procured' for the
some of those emperors from establishing oilier royal residences in the Lake building of the first bridge on the Abay, the Alata Bridge.9 In addition, the
Tana region and spending part of ilie year iliere. The royal chronicles of the Scottish explorer Ja mes Bruce witnessed the presence in Gondar of Christian
time often describe the moment when ilie signal for the royal departure from Greeks working in decorating the castle iliat Emperor lyasu II was building
Gondar was given, usually after the rainy season, and people were gathered by in the l 730s.10 The foreign architectural knowledge syncretized with the local
the herald and ordered to bring their mules and horses to join the procession one, which bore ilie legacy of the outstanding and distinctive architecture
and help the imperial caravan transport its goods.7 Emperor Yohannes I, for developed by the Aksumite Civilisation in the first centuries of the Christian
instance, chose to have a residence in Aringo, near Dabra Tabor, and Yababa, era and by the creators of 12th and 13th century Lalibela churches. Among ilie
south ofBahir Dar, where ilie ruins of ilie fortress still suggest its importance; many skilled Ethiopians who worked at the Gondar imperial court we know
Iyasu I built a fascinating castle on the tiny Chakla Manzo Island, in Lake the name of Walda Giyorgis, to whom the royal chronicles of the time ascribe
Tana; and Bakaffa built a fortress on Giyorgis Island, near the northern the construction of tl1e Chancellery of Yohannes I. 11 The outcome of such
shore of the lake. All these castles, fortresses, palaces and many other buildings a fascinating cultural fusion also includes churches like Bahiri Gimp, with
give the region its distinctive and fabulous character. Their architecture round-domed towers which are also featured in the compound walls of the
was revolutionary and consisted of a blend of local and foreign influences, churches ofTsadda Gziabier Ab and Azazo Takla Haymanot; bridges,
according to a recipe that remains mysterious. such as the oldest one at Guzara, and those built by Fasiladas on the Angareb
12 13
ARADA GUIDES I A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO GONDAR AND LAKE TANA INTRODUCTION
and Qaha Rivers (Dafacha Bridge and Genfokuch Bridge, respectively),
and the beautiful, famousAlata Bridge; as well as houses, like the enchanting
building in the Giyorgis Church compound in Bahir Dar. The Gondarine
style applied to buildings located in the Lake Tana region, with the exception
of the old cathedral of Aksum, Enda Maryam Seyon, which assumed such
a stylistic character after the l 7th-century restoration work sponsored by
Emperor Fasiladas. Castles and churches in Lake Tana region remain as
tangible signs of the cultural renaissance that occurred in this part of Ethiopia
between the 16th and the 18th centuries and that, as shown in the next section,
was not restricted to architecture alone.
: The Churches of Lake Tana :
The shift of the imperial political centre to Lake Tana region occurred in a
territory with a very long and amazing history. Since ancient times the local
peoples have been worshipping the spring at Gish Abay that is the source of
the Blue Nile. Known in Ethiopia as Abay, it is traditionally identified with the 0.2 Castle of Fasiladas (Lefebvre, 1845-51 ).
Ghion River that, according to the Bible, flows from the Garden of Eden and
encompasses the land of Ethiopia (Genesis 2:13). The fame of its source had of the expansion of the Ethiopian Kingdom under the reign of Amda Seyon
most probably reached the West during the time of the ancient Greeks, who (1314-44 ). 12 In fact, the lake islands offered a safe harbour to the first
might have known it as Psebo or Coloe thanks to Strabo and Eratosthenes. communities converted to Christianity, protecting them from the hostility of
Its location, however, puzzled Western geographers and explorers until James the surrounding inland populations, particularly the Falashas and the Agaw.
Bruce "discovered" it in 1770. Tana Island, to which Lake Tana owes its The immigration into the lake region of monks exiled because of the conflicts
name, is another historic landmark: the stone altars provide evidence of pre that affected the Ethiopian Christian communities internally and vis-a-vis
Christian religious practices and the place became one of the first Christian the royal power also explains the rapid increase in the number of monasteries
settlements in the region, as well as in Ethiopia. Lack of historical evidence is since the 14th century, whose power increased after Emperor Sarsa Dengel
counterbalanced by an abundance of legendary tales, according to which the established his imperial residence at Gubay, the present Guzara-Emfraz. It
Holy Family made a stop here on its flight from Herod's wrath, and the Ark is the beginning of a long and extraordinary period of religious and artistic
of the Covenant remained on the island for 800 years before reaching Enda renaissance that goes from the 15th to the 17th centuries and makes Lake
Maryam Seyon Church at Aksum, whereas, of the other three arks (jabots) Tana churches and monasteries among the most interesting and romantically
that were travelling with the Ark, Qirqos remained on the island, one went to beautiful historical sites to be visited in Ethiopia. Much is still unknown about
the above-mentioned Martula Maryam, and the last one to Tadbaba Maryam that artistic renaissance's roots and its protagonists, but some key facts emerge
in Wallo. Therefore, these would be the first four Christian churches built firmly. One of them is the work of Fre Seyon, one of the greatest Ethiopian
in Ethiopia. While historians doubt that the foundation of Tana Qirqos painters and the creator of what have been considered as the major Ethiopian
Church dates back to the introduction of Christianity in Ethiopia in the 4th paintings of the 15th century: the panels for the churches ofDaga Estephanos,
century, the island was certainly one of the first outposts of the Christianisation on Daga Island, and Rema Medhane Alem, on Rema Island. 13 He was
of the Lake Tana region that occurred in the 14th century, in the aftermath a monk from the Dabra Gwegweben monastery, once located on the eastern
14 15
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ARADA GUIDES I A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO GONDAR AND LAKE TANA INTRODUCTION
from 13th- to 15th-century Arab or Christian Arab painting, especially with
shore of Lake Tana, and he lived during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob, as
regard to those "full moon faces" that became very popular in l 5th-century
we know from what he himself wrote - an exceptional fact for the time - on
Ethiopian painting, as in, for example, Fre Seyon's masterpieces.20
the above-mentioned Daga Estephanos panel. He painted it for the island's
church, where a copy of that panel can be seen, together with the original of a The stylistic development of Ethiopian painting was fostered by the political
magnificent painting on canvas also attributed to Fre Seyon, with an enthroned stability and relative economic prosperity that followed the establishment of
Christ in the upper half and Mary with the Child in the lower one. 14 There is Gondar by Emperor Fasiladas. As it occurred in architecture, this development
a consensus among scholars that Fre Seyon had a leading role in the creation marked the beginning of what is commonly known as Gondarine style. Scholars
of a new style, in which tradition creatively encountered external influences. To generally agree on a twofold periodisation: the first style dates to the 17th
Fre Seyon, for instance, a leading scholar has acknowledged the introduction century and the second to the l 8th.21 The dramatic First Style contrasts with
to Ethiopian painting of elements that would all be of Italian Tuscan origin, the narrative Second Style;22 whereas figures are characterised by their outlines
such as the gray dove held by the Child, the gesture of the caressed chin, and in the First, in the Second they are shown "in the round" on backgrounds
the sprig of flowers held by Mary. 15 painted in vivid colours;23 in the First, the dark lines delineating the figures
are filled in with flat, contrasting colours - mostly yellow, green, red and blue
The creation of this new style was a process catalysed by the political and
- backgrounds are flat, a red wash schematically covers part of faces, patterns
ecclesiastical reforms carried out by Emperor Zara Yaqob during his reign
are geometric, as in the case of those made of short lines and dots decorating
( 1433-68). On the one hand, he strongly promoted devotion to the Virgin Mary,
robes. In the Second, forms are fluid, figures are more realistically created by
to the extent that he ordered the reading in church of the Book of Miracles of
the means of light, shade, and graduated colours, generally used in darker
Mary, a collection of stories and traditions which had its origin in mid-12th
shades, faces are rounded and rosy, backgrounds are soft and luminous, an
century France and was translated into the Ethiopian language during the
effect obtained by juxtaposing the bright yellow colour to dark red and green
reign of his father and himself.16 The Ethiopian painters of the time responded
and by blending colours into the adjacent areas; a sense of depth is given often
positively to the Emperor's direction, as is shown in another masterpiece of
by painting fully only the figures in the first row of a group. Religious themes
the 15th century, the Tana Qirqos folding processional icon, where the new
prevail in the First, whereas the Second pays more attention to nonreligious
central role given to St. Mary's representation was taken literally, by depicting
aspects of Ethiopian life, such as battles, banquets, and country scenes; in
the Virgin at the centre of a 480 cm long row of patriarchs, saints, and apostles.
addition, portraits become a key theme in the Second Style.24 The table below
Particularly, it is under Zara Yaqob that the Virgin with the Child became one of
synthesises the major differences between the two styles.
the major iconographic themes of Ethiopian painting, although its introduction
dates back at least to the 14th century, as we see in Qorqor Maryam Church,
First Gondarine Painting Style Second Gondarine Painting Style
Tigray.17 The centraLty of such a theme emerges clearly in Fre Seyon's work as
well as in the l 5th-century paintings, while the emperor himself wore an image Dramatic Narrative
of Mary and the Child on his chest.18 On the other hand, it was mostly due
Geometric patterns Fluid forms
to Zara Yaqob's diplomatic efforts that contacts between Ethiopia and Europe
intensified during the 15th century, facilitating the arrival of foreign artists in Figures marked by outlines Figures "in the round"
the country. Particularly, evidence exists that the Venetians Gregorio Bicini and
Dark lines delineating figures Light, shade, graduated colours
Nicolo Brancaleone, and the Portuguese Lazaro de Andrade were working as
painters in l 5th-and l 6th-century Ethiopia, most probably together with many Flat backgrounds Soft and luminous backgrounds
other Europeans artists, including those linked to the presence of the Jesuit
Mostly religious themes Also nonreligious, life
missions in the 16th century.19 Scholars also found some possible influences
17
16