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This photo exhibition on the architectural and urban heritage of the Somali capital (curated by Maria Spina and Gabriella Restaino) – consisting of 47 panels (with texts and captions in Italian and Somali) – was made possible thanks to an international collaboration of scholars and the connection between the Somali National University, the Academy of Sciences, Culture and Arts of Mogadishu, the University “Roma Tre”, the Polytechnic of Turin, the University of Bologna, the “Sapienza” University of Rome, the University of Camerino and the Polytechnic of Milan.

Inaugurated for the first time on 10 December 2018, in the headquarters of the Municipality of Mogadishu, in the presence of the then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emanuela Del Re, «Mogadishu and its historical-urban evolution: pages of the city’s history» was welcomed the following year within the walls of the ex- Convento del Colle dell’Annunziata in Ascoli Piceno, for the benefit of the School of Architecture and Design of the University of Camerino.

Although most of its monuments were destroyed due to the long civil war and many works were stolen, Mogadishu still preserves important memories of its thousand-year-old past that deserve to be safeguarded and passed down. In this sense, the exhibition – led by the Scientific Committee headed by: Susanna Bortolotto, Gentucca Canella, Lucio Carbonara, Bernardino Chiaia, Spiridione Alessandro Curuni, Daniela Esposito, Mohamed Ahmed Faghi, Pier Giorgio Massaretti, Mario Micheli, Nuredin Hagi Scikei, Annarita Puglielli, Renzo Riboldazzi, Elio Trusiani, Alessandro Volterra – aims to:

– initiate awareness-raising processes among the Somali authorities, citizens and Italian scholars regarding the various issues connected with the protection and enhancement of the cultural heritage of the capital and other cities on the Somali coast;

– avert the danger of indiscriminate destruction of historic buildings, still existing in the historic center of Mogadishu, also trying to stem the building speculation carried out by large international companies;

– create a digital archive of the architectural and urban heritage of Somalia with digital reproductions of photographic, cartographic and video documents kept in various archives in Italy.

Thus, through four virtual itineraries – based on the Touring Club guides of the last century (1929 and 1938) – the 47 panels on display allow you to retrace the main streets of Mogadishu, observing the transformations that have changed its urban layout over the years, thanks to period photographs, maps, plans and axonometric projections.

“Buildings of the medieval city”, the first of the four proposed itineraries, is dedicated to the ancient neighborhoods of Shingaani and Hamarweyne, the original nuclei of the city and home to important monuments.

The second itinerary, “The city in the accounts of travellers and geographers”, focuses instead on the descriptions provided by those who, during their travels, landed on the Somali coast: starting with Yāqūt Abd Allāh al-Rūmī al-Hamawī (12th-13th centuries), and ending with Roberto Robecchi Bricchetti (19th century).

The third itinerary, entitled “Spaces of modernity”, focuses above all on the urban areas that underwent the most transformations during the 1920s and 1930s.

The fourth and final itinerary, “Urban and extra-urban equipment and infrastructure”, finally offers a complete panorama of the infrastructures built in Mogadishu between the first and second half of the twentieth century, also taking a careful look at the long network of canals that fed the Società Agricola Italo Somala.

For this edition of «Mogadishu and its historical-urban evolution: pages of the city’s history» – promoted by the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the cultural association “SAGAL”, the Municipality of Trieste and the Regional Council of Friuli Venezia Giulia –, the video Discovery of the architectural and urban heritage of Mogadishu has also been prepared, which explores, still experimentally, the possibility of reconstructing the urban development of the city in 3D, starting from archive documents.

The exhibition has received the patronage of: the Italian Embassy in Mogadishu, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the University of Trieste, the Somali National University, the Somali Academy of Sciences, Culture and Arts, the Center for Somali Studies of the University “Roma Tre”, the Historical Archives of the University of Bologna, the Department of Architecture and Design of the Polytechnic of Turin, the School of Architecture and Design “Eduardo Vittoria” of the University of Camerino, the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Polytechnic of Milan, the National Institute of Architecture-