Adwa

Adwa (Tigrinya: ዓድዋ; Amharic: ዐድዋ; also spelled Adowa or Aduwa) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is best known as the community closest to the site of the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian soldiers defeated Italian troops, thus being one of the few African nations to thwart European colonialism. Located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Region, Adwa has a longitude and latitude of 14°10′N 38°54′E / 14.167°N 38.900°E / 14.167; 38.900, and an elevation of 1907 meters. Adwa is surrounded by Adwa woreda.

Adwa is home to several notable churches: Adwa Enda-Gebri'el (built by Dejazmach Wolde Gebriel), Adwa Enda-Maryam (built by Ras Anda Haymanot), Adwa Edna-Medhane`Alem (built by Ras Sabagadis), Adwa Nigiste-Saba /Queen of Sheba secondary school, and Adwa Enda-Selasse. Near Adwa is Abba Garima Monastery, founded in the sixth century by one of the Nine Saints and known for its tenth century gospels. Also nearby is the village of Fremona, which had been the base of the 16th century Jesuits sent to convert Ethiopia to Catholicism.

According to Richard Pankhurst, Adwa derives its name from Adi Awa (or Wa), "village of the Awa". The Awa are a tribe that was mentioned in the anonymous Monumentum Adulitanum that once stood at Adulis.

Francisco Alvares records that the Portuguese diplomatic mission passed Adwa, which he called "Houses of St. Michael," in August 1520.

By 1700, it had become the residence for the governor of Tigray province and grew to overshadow Debarwa, the traditional seat of the Bahr Negash, as the most important town in northern Ethiopia. Its market was important enough to need a Nagadras. The earliest known person to hold this office was the Greek immigrant Janni of Adwa, a brother of Petros, chamberlain to Emperor Iyoas I. Adwa was home to a small colony of Greek merchants into the 19th century.

Adwa acquired major importance due to the establishment of a permanent capital at Gondar. As the traveler James Bruce noted, Adwa was situated on a piece of "flat ground through which every body must go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea". The person who controlled this plain could levy profitable tolls on the caravans which passed through.

Because of its location on this major trade route, it is mentioned in the memoirs of numerous 19th-century Europeans visiting Ethiopia. These include Arnaud and Antoine d'Abbadie, Henry Salt, Samuel Gobat, Mansfield Parkyns and Théophile Lefebvre. After the defeat and death of Ras Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay, its inhabitants fled Adwa for safety. The town was briefly held by Emperor Tewodros II in January 1860, who had marched from the south in response to the rebellion of Agew Neguse, who had burned then fled the town.

After the departure of Tewodros, the town was seized in 1865 by another nobleman, Wagshum Gobaze, who soon claimed the title of Emperor under the name Tekle Giyorgis II. He was subsequently defeated by a rival, Yohannes IV, in a battle fought just outside the town in 1871.