Gondar is a city of palaces and castles: Ethiopia in the seventeenth century. For the first time in the country’s history, Kaiser Fasilidas began with the construction of a walled palace. Until then, the emperors of that time took part in various campaigns during the dry season. Only during the rainy season was the court located in a camp thus, in the course of a century, a huge fortification was built with several royal palaces and a number of churches.

Emperor Yohannes, son of Fasilidas, took over the throne after his father’s death in 1667, when he had the palace extended considerably. But apart from the library tower and an adjoining wall, little of it is visible today. The remaining architecture is reminiscent of European castles. The next emperor, Fasilidas’ grandson, Iyasu The first, had a further two-storey palace built close to the original one.

Set in a magnificent location overlooking the city, the palace ruins stimulate the imagination as to how splendid this all once was. Finally, the Empire disintegrated into warring principalities, a fact that spelled the inevitable decline of the imperial city of Gondor.