The buildings at this archaeological site date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the court of Gondar was the capital of Ethiopia. Portugal, while expanding its empire to East Africa, sent Portuguese Jesuit missionaries to Ethiopia, who converted Gondar’s emperor to Catholicism.
The Portuguese brought with them artisans from the west coast of India—which had been under Portuguese domination from the early part of the sixteenth century, to the Ethiopian highlands and introduced entirely new building materials and methods. For the first time, arches, vaulted construction, and the use of lime became known in Ethiopia, and these new building materials and methods were then used at Gondar. Although the Jesuits were eventually forced to leave, the Goan masons and carpenters remained and influenced the architecture at Queen Mentewab’s palace and banqueting hall.
