Equestrian Statue of Emperor Menelik II
The statue symbolizes the anti-colonial struggle of Emperor Menelik who waged the Battle of Adwa, the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1896 and is witnessing Africa’s triumph over European colonialism. It is ordered to be erected by Queen Zewditu, the daughter of Emperor Menelik II, for the memory of her father.
It was drawn by the German architect Haertel Spengler and it was also made in Germany. Sadly before the erection of the monument, Queen Zewditu died in 1930. Thus, the then crown prince (Emperor Haileselassie) inaugurated the monument on the eve of his coronation on the same year. In 1936 Benito Mussolini ordered the destruction and hide out of the monument in order to make the humiliating defeat of Italians in Menelik’s hand at the battle of Adwa, forgotten from the minds of all Ethiopians as well as the world. However, in 1941 when the invaders are driven out of the country, the monument was restored to its original place. It is now located at piassa on the square of Emperor Menelik near St. George church.
