Gondar Gondar Job File Table Category="Cities in Ethiopia"Gondar (less commonly spelled Gonder) was the old imperial capital of Ethiopia and the historic Begemder province, now part of the Amhara region. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar. The city lies north of Lake Tana on the Angereb River and south west of the Simien Mountains. As of 1994, it had 112,249 inhabitants.

History

Until the 16th century, the Emperors of Ethiopia usually had no fixed capital, instead living in tents as they moved around their realms while their family, bodyguard and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was Debre Berhan, founded by Zara Yaqob in 1456.

Beginning with Emperor Minas in 1559, the rulers of Ethiopia began spend the rainy season near Lake Tana, often returning to the same location again and again. These encampments, which flourished as cities for a short time, include Emfraz, Ayba, Gorgora, and Dankaz.

Gondar was founded by Emperor Fasilidos around the year 1635, and grew as an agricultural and Market town. There was a superstition at the time that the capital's name should begin with a 'G', (which also contributed to Gorgora's growth in the centuries after 1600). Tradition also states that a buffalo led the Emperor Fasilidos to a pool beside the Angereb, where an "old and venerable hermit" told the Emperor he would locate his capital there. Fasilidos haqd the pool filled in and built his castle on that same site. The emperor also built a total of seven churchs; the first two, Fit Mikael and Fit Abbo, were built to end local epidemics. The five emperors who followed him also built their palaces in the town.

In 1668, as a result of a church council, the Emperor Yohannes I ordered that the inhabitants of Gondar be segregated by religion, the Muslims move into their own quarter, the Eslam Bet, within two years.

During the seventeenth century, the city's population is estimated to have exceeded 60,000. In 1678, the visiting Armenian bishop Hovannes remarked that the city was "twice as big as Istanbul". Many of the buildings from this period survive, as the eighteenth century was a time of turmoil and the city declined.

The town served as Ethiopia's capital until Tewodros II moved the Imperial capital to Magadala upon being crowned Emperor in 1855. Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sacked Gondar when he invaded Ethiopia in 1887. Gondar was further developed under Italian occupation; during the Second World War, Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces in May.

As part of Operation Tewodros near the end of the Ethiopian Civil War, Gondar was captured by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front in March 1991.

Attractions

The modern city of Gondar is popular as a tourist attraction for its many picturesque ruins in the Royal Enclosure, from which the Emperors once reigned. Gondar is also a noted center of eclesiastic learning in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The most famous buildings in the city lie in the seventeenth century Royal Enclosure, including Fasiladas' Palace, Iyasu's Palace, Dawit's Hall, a banqueting hall, stables, Mentewab's Castle, a Chancellery, Library and three churches. Elsewhere lie Fasiladas' Bath, home to an annual ceremony where it is blessed and then opened for bathing; the Qusquam complex, built by Empress Mentewab; the eighteenth century Ras Mikael Sehul's Palace and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church. The town is also home to an Airport.

Notes

  1. Richard R.K. Pankhurst, History of Ethiopian Towns: From the Middle Ages to the Early Nineteenth Century (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), p. 117
  2. Pankhurst, p. 128.

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