The Imperial Palace on Taulud Island is one of Massawa's most striking buildings — a two-storey coral-block structure with arched colonnades and ornamental ironwork, built in 1872. Originally the residence of the Egyptian administrator Werner Munzinger, it later became Haile Selassie's winter palace, and the emperor's grand vehicle still sits in the courtyard in a state of dignified decay.
The building took serious shell damage during the 1990 battle for Massawa — you can see the impact marks clearly — and has never been fully restored. But the atmosphere is powerful: a reminder of the city's extraordinary layered history, from Ottoman trading port to Egyptian colony to Italian possession to Ethiopian navy base. The surrounding Taulud neighbourhood has several other elegant Italian-era villas in similar states of handsome ruin.