Abagis Castle in Sekela Woreda, West Gojjam Zone: A Study of its History and Architecture

Abstract

The Lake Tana region has a number of pre-Gondarine and Gondarine buildings with common features distinctive of what is generally called Gondar-style architecture. The origin of this architectural style is yet still unsolved. These buildings are not sufficiently studied, documented, and conserved. This study focuses on the history and architecture of Abagis castle in Sekela woreda, west Gojjam zone. The study delves on its historical context, architectural features, and raw materials and establishes comparisons with other monuments. The study also assesses its significance, and current status of the castle which had been largely ignored in previous studies. The site and the informants of this study were selected purposively. The data for this study was obtained from primary and secondary sources. The primary data was collected in the field mainly through observation, and key informant interview. The secondary data was gathered from published and unpublished written materials. The data was analyzed qualitatively. Thus, the history of the castle was recorded by using local and foreign written and oral sources and all the structures found in the site and their raw materials and architectural features are documented, investigated and described by direct observation. Besides, its historical context, architectural aspect comparing with other structures of the country and its values was presented. Moreover, the current state of preservation of the castle identified, which is found to be in bad condition and fast deterioration rate, due to different natural and manmade problems. As a result this study finally tried to forward possible management plans and recommendations. Generally, the result of this study informs the above important details which are not addressed by the privies studies, and will be helpful for historian, archeologist and architects who have interests to conduct a research on the issues of historic buildings.