A man rides a bicycle past what used to be the Italian car maker Alfa Romeo's headquarters
© AFP/File Peter Martell

ASMARA (AFP) - Architectural critics hail the filling station with its 18-metre (60-foot) concrete projections as one of the most remarkable surviving examples of the Futurist style.

But in Asmara, it is only one of many extraordinary structures.

Frustrated avant-garde architects from an architecturally conservative early 20th-century Europe used Asmara to experiment with radical new designs.

They left a legacy valued by Eritreans and by experts worldwide, but lesser known outside this little-visited country whose image is overshadowed by its 30-year liberation struggle from arch-foe Ethiopia.

"Visually, time seems to stand still here," said photographer Stefan Boness whose book "Asmara, The Frozen City," captures many of the city's architectural gems.

"When I show images of Asmara to designers and architects they get very excited at what they see."

Residents of Eritrea's capital, Asmara, cross a street near an apartment complex
© AFP/File Peter Martell

As for quality, "the architectural heritage of Asmara would deserve World Heritage status," said Gaetano Palumbo, a director at the World Monuments Fund, an international body protecting endangered works of historic architecture.

Architect and writer Naigzy Gebremedhin said "most people in the West ... think there couldn't possibly be something like this in Africa."

"There's this mental image that in Africa you might find wildlife, you might find some other things, but Modernist architecture which survived, no. But... this is beginning to break down.

"Asmara is no longer a secret," said Naigzy.

First settled over a thousand years ago, Asmara was developed by Italian colonisers in a massive construction boom in the 1930s.

Many buildings have designs that have "survived many decades virtually untouched," Palumbo added.

Original features can be found on almost every street of this mountain city of 450,000 inhabitants, which became a capital when Eritrea acquired its independence in 1993 but remains steeped in its Italian legacy.

A woman crosses a street adjacent to the Cathedral and Catholic Mission compound in Asmara
© AFP/File Peter Martell

But "without care, much that is important could be lost," Boness warned. "While some buildings have been renovated, others need attention."

Eritrea, battered by three decades of conflict with Ethiopia and a subsequent bloody 1998-2000 border war, had a gross national income per capita of just 220 dollars (160 euros) a year in 2005, according to World Bank figures.

With many pressing development needs in the largely rural country, preserving the capital's colonial architecture understandably ranks low as a priority to many.

Eritrea last year spent six million Nakfa (400,000 dollars, 300,000 euros) for the renovation of Asmara's historical buildings, according to state media, which stressed the need for "keeping intact" existing styles.

But the fiercely self-reliant Eritrean government recently declined an extension to a five-million-dollar renovation project by the World Bank - a decision Palumbo called "sad."

"The historic centre of Asmara is still at risk," Palumbo added. "New developments may encroach and eventually destroy this unique setting."

The Eritrean capital figured into the dream of Italy's World War II fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to create an African capital for a second Roman Empire. Colonial settlers even dubbed elegant Asmara "Piccola Roma," or Little Rome.

Its sometimes eccentric structures are a legacy of that period when Asmara had a graceful but racially-segregated city centre with wide palm-lined boulevards, flower-covered villas and stylish cinemas.

"There was this major freedom to experiment," said Naigzy, co-author of "Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City".

Residents walk past Fiat's Tagliero garage
© AFP/File Peter Martell

"Although their instructions were to create a sort architecture that conveys the will of Fascism, far from Rome these... young Italian architects let their imagination soar."

The experts believe Asmara's architecture could be tapped as a potentially lucrative tourist draw.

"It can be a magnet for attracting tourists, it could be a major place where tourists can come," Naigzy added.

For the moment, however, Asmara is a difficult destination to market.

Eritrea's tense border stalemate with its neighbour Ethiopia, stringent travel restrictions and repeated accusations by human rights organisations -- including the arrest of critics and religious persecution -- mean that only about 4,000 western tourists visited last year.

Eritreans, however, are hopeful for the future.

Asmara's residents are enormously proud of the city they fought so long to liberate, and residents say they will fight equally hard to prevent its character if threatened by modern development.

"There is no other city like this in the world," said an elderly former fighter, drinking cappuccino in a shady street cafe opposite the imposing ministry of education, once the Fascist party headquarters.

"It is no colonial city now. We fought for our independence, so it is Eritrea's, and so we must take care of it."

©AFP