Giuseppe Pettazzi

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Giuseppe Pettazzi (born May 3, 1907 in Milan , † October 8, 2001 in Rapallo ) was an Italian civil engineer . Its most famous building is the Fiat Tagliero petrol station in Asmara , built in 1938 in the Art Deco style and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017 .

biography

Giuseppe Pettazzi, whose family comes from Piedmont , was born in Milan in 1907. In 1925 he completed his humanistic school education with the Abitur and enrolled in the faculty of engineering in Turin .

In 1928 he interrupted his studies to do his military service with the Alpini in Bra . He attended a course for non-commissioned officers and was discharged as a lieutenant in the reserve. In 1931 he finished his resumed studies with the degree of civil engineer.

In the following years he worked for various construction companies in Piedmont and Lombardy . At the end of 1936 he went to Italian East Africa , namely to Eritrea , in order to pursue a career there within the framework of the colonial policy driven by the fascist regime .

In Asmara he managed to set up his own construction company, with which he contributed to the urban development of the city in the Art Deco style. These include the Fiat Tagliero, which he designed and opened on October 28, 1938 in the presence of the Duca d'Aosta . The other buildings he built in Eritrea include the workshops and spare parts stores of the same name, also built for Fiat, as well as the sales areas of the UPIM -Rinascente department store . But he also contributed to the expansion of the road network in the Italian colony.

Fiat Tagliero , Asmara

In mid-August 1939 he visited his parents in Rocchetta Tanaro and witnessed the outbreak of the Second World War there. Nonetheless, he returned to Asmara in September of the same year.

When Italy entered the war in May 1940, he was called up to the infantry. In the following years he was assigned to the Alpini Battalion Uork Amba and took part in the Battle of Keren in March 1941 . During the fighting, he was injured in one hand which, due to an infection, forced him to go to a hospital in Asmara. There he was taken prisoner by the English on April 1, 1941.

He spent his first months as a prisoner of war near Khartoum . He was then taken to a camp in Bhopal , India . After September 8, 1943 , he refused to support the Badoglio government . Because of this, he was only released from British captivity in December 1946.

In the post-war period he married and resumed his work as a civil engineer, but after a few years he could no longer cope with his old profession, so he switched to teaching.

Giuseppe Pettazzi died on October 8, 2001, largely unknown for his work as a civil engineer in Rapallo. It was not until Asmara was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site that the public was made aware of it again.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Edward Denison: Bradt Travel Guide: Eritrea. Bradt, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84162-171-5 , p. 112.
  2. ^ Asmara: A Modernist African City. on: whc.unesco.org (English)
  3. ↑ a b c Ing.Giuseppe Pettazzi. Biography. (Italian) Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  4. ↑ Il sogno dell'ingegnere che disegnò le ali alla bellezza di Asmara. on: la Repubblica online. (Italian) Retrieved March 2, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Pettazzi, Giuseppe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian civil engineer, representative of Art Deco
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 2001
Place of death Rapallo