{"id":281784,"date":"2019-07-17T10:43:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T14:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiO2h0dHA6Ly93d3cueGluaHVhbmV0LmNvbS9lbmdsaXNoLzIwMTktMDcvMTcvY18xMzgyMzUxMTQuaHRt0gEA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:57:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:57:47","slug":"construction-begins-on-an-adwa-victory-memorial-centre-at-piassa-in-addis-ababa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/281784","title":{"rendered":"Construction begins on an Adwa victory memorial centre at Piassa in Addis Ababa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work began on 17 July 2019 on a memorial centre in Addis Ababa honouring Ethiopia\u2019s victory over Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896, the city administration said.<\/p>\n

\"Menelik<\/figure>\n

Menelik II Square in Piassa, Addis Ababa, beside the site of the Adwa memorial centre, January 2024 (Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

The contractor, China Jiangsu International Economic and Technical Cooperation Group, is expected to finish the centre in two years, according to a city statement reported by Xinhua. Plans include a museum, a 2,000-seat conference hall, a cinema, a library, a gym, parking for 600 cars, green areas and caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

The centre will rise in Piassa, next to Menelik II Square, and will cost 4.6 billion birr, paid by the city administration, Ethiopian Monitor and Addis Fortune reported. The company formally signed its contract a day after work began.<\/p>\n

The Adwa project is one of six that the city signed with three international firms, worth a total of 10.7 billion birr, Addis Fortune said. The others include a renovation of the municipality theatre hall, parking at the Grand Palace, a three-storey library at Arat Kilo to be built by the Italian firm Varnero for 1.1 billion birr, a 3.8-kilometer Pushkin Square\u2013Gotera interchange road costing 1.5 billion birr, and a road from Bole Medhanialem to the British Embassy.<\/p>\n

At Adwa, in northern Ethiopia, Emperor Menelik II\u2019s forces defeated an invading Italian army. The victory kept Ethiopia free of colonial rule through the scramble for Africa and became a lasting symbol of African resistance to colonialism.<\/p>\n

City officials said they hoped the centre would pass the story of the victory on to the next generation, according to Ethiopian Monitor.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Xinhua<\/a>, Ethiopian Monitor<\/a>, Addis Fortune<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Work began on 17 July 2019 on a memorial centre in Addis Ababa honouring Ethiopia\u2019s victory over Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896, the city administration said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/menelik-ii-square-piassa-2024.jpg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1biU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837643,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281784\/revisions\/837643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}