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Corcoran: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini liked to boast that he’d make the trains run on time. Sixty years on, Il Duce’s obsession with transport efficiency has gone down the same track as his dreams of a fascist empire.

But in one corner of Africa, his legacy endures -- for this is the city that Mussolini built.

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Corcoran: Asmara, capital of Eritrea, is heralded as Africa’s best-kept architectural secret.This former Italian colonial city was designed during a time when life was led at a more leisurely pace…more Mediterranean than African, a society of cafes, cappuccinos and cycling… that endures to this day.

Naigzy: Yes that’s one thing very special about the
Asmarino – the are people of Asmara – they love their city – they think it is very unique. They think that everything else is a copy of Asmara – even Rome is a copy of Asmara to a certain extent.

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Corcoran: In just six years from 1935, the Italians transformed a colonial backwater into this extraordinary city of modernist and art deco buildings.

Naigzy: Mussolini had apparently decided that we are going to invade Ethiopia, was going to re-establish – in a way – the Roman Empire – and the beginning was going to be here.

Corcoran: Retired architect, Naigzy Gebremedhin is now tasked with saving this architectural treasure – that he hopes one day will be declared a world heritage site.

Naigzy: If we talk about the historic perimeter or Asmara which is about 4 or 5 square kilometres in area – within this area we think there are about 6 – 700 architecturally significant modern buildings. So, it makes it one of the largest concentration of modernist architecture, more or less all over the world.

Corcoran: Equally remarkable is the fact that Asmara remains largely untouched by decades of war that’s ravaged the rest of this country.

The only trenches these soldiers dig are for repairs to the Italian era plumbing.

The city survived the Second World war and a three decade war of liberation – with Asmara always the cherished prize – but never a battlefield. The city’s greatest enemy has been time and neglect.

Naigzy: In a way it is a witness to how strong, how well the building was done, it is now sixty odd years, and structurally you can’t see anything wrong with it – a bit of plaster – some paint and new shutters and this building will be in top shape.

Corcoran: Naigzy’s biggest challenge is money – or the lack of it. With Eritrea’s economy shattered by war – priorities lie elsewhere.

Naigzy: We’ve started very, very modestly by taking a loan from the World Bank – only 5 million dollars, a Learning and Innovation Loan – and if you increase that ten fold, perhaps you can make a significant, you will go a long way towards preserving Asmara’s character as it was in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Corcoran: Restoration has already begun on the city’s most famous landmark - the Fiat Tagliero garage – a winged tribute to Italian futurism of the 1930’s.Naigzy: It was designed to imitate an aeroplane and it was the time in Italian colonial architecture when they were experimenting. They had plenty of leeway so the architect designed this building like an aeroplane. I wonder whether there’ll be allowed to have built a structure like this in Rome at that time.

Corcoran: While old Asmara survived the ravages of time and war, other parts of the city have already fallen to that scourge of the heritage architect – the developer.Now overshadowing the Tagliero winged garage is a new multi storey office block.Corcoran: What’s wrong with this what don’t you like about this?Naigzy: Well, first of all it doesn’t harmonize with the Tagliero building. It does block the flow of traffic and so on, and it is just not the style which is in keeping with historical Asmara -- with the Asmara that was built in the 1930s.Corcoran: Are we going to see more of these sorts of buildings built in the city?

Naigzy: No hopefully not, because there’s now an embargo on building within the historical perimeter.

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Corcoran: But not all the Italian legacy is so aesthetically pleasing. Eritreans were invisible to Mussolini’s “Grand Vision” – regarded as little more than a native workforce to be exploited. Three quarters of the modernist city was intended for the 50 thousand European colonisers --Asmara’s 100 thousand Eritreans were packed into this ghetto.

Naigzy: Well let’s put it this way, the Italians designated the area as the native quarter, and the population was supposed to fend for itself . Pretty much – as it was – minor changes – I’m sure the water has been provided here – electricity – most of them have electricity.

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Corcoran: Eritreans have resisted the urge – so common across Africa – to destroy the colonial past. But it’s more than just nostalgia -- there’s a hard headed realisation that Eritrea – with it’s economy in ruins – may need the past to help fund the future.

Naigzy: Cultural assets like this will be behind the success of tourism, so it’s a very, very important and unique cultural asset.

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Corcoran: And if Naigzy Gebredhin has got anything to do with it Africa’s best kept secret will be a secret no more.
Reporter: Mark CorcoranCamera: Geoffrey LyeSound: Kate McGureEditor: Garth ThomasResearch: Vivien Altman