During the 2019 World Press Freedom Day meetings in Addis Ababa, Uganda’s Observer published a travel essay by a delegate who toured Holy Trinity Cathedral and nearby monuments under Ethiopian government hospitality.
The writer described prayer before Trinity images, the tombs of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen, the grave of former prime minister Meles Zenawi, and memorials for Ethiopians killed under Italian occupation, including a guide’s account of chemical weapons and tens of thousands of dead.
A tour guide explained that cathedral construction paused during the Italian occupation and finished after Haile Selassie’s return, and that a museum and costly mausoleum boxes served both faith and status.
Kept as culture archive, the piece is a visitor’s dated walk through Orthodox memory and political burial in Addis Ababa, useful for readers who want how sacred space and modern power share the same compound.
Sources: The Observer (Uganda)