Cultural treasure or painful reminder? Libya’s colonial architecture

Residents of Tripoli and Benghazi are divided about what should be done with their Italian colonial heritage.

Benghazi, Libya – It happened in the middle of the night, as most destructive operations carried out without the consent of the local population are. In March 2023, an area of Benghazi’s historical centre including several buildings of Italian colonial heritage, was razed to the ground.

So unexpected was the operation conducted by the Libyan military, that even Benghazi’s mayor was taken by surprise.

The raid on the historic city centre was carried out to clear the debris left behind by past and ongoing conflicts, and to clear the way for a new, modern centre. The reconstruction has not been carried out in an organic way, and now, while some buildings have been reconstructed or substituted by modern ones, others, like the Berenice Theatre, are still rubble.

Benghazi was badly damaged by bombing during the second world war, rebuilt and then destroyed again during the 2014 – 2018 civil war.

The damage from the wars and the drive to regenerate in more recent years have effectively obliterated a large part of modern Libyan history. One of the most significant examples of this lost history was the Berenice Theatre. Built in 1928, it represented one of the very few places of entertainment, art and gathering for the citizens of the city throughout the following decades.