Tripoli Cathedral (Masjid Gamal Abdel Nasser)

Former Italian colonial cathedral now converted to a mosque

Tripoli's former Roman Catholic cathedral stands on what the Italians called Piazza della Cattedrale in the city centre, now a mosque named after Gamal Abdel Nasser. The building is a striking example of Italian colonial architecture — a Romanesque-Byzantine design with twin towers that were converted to minarets after the cathedral's conversion in 1970.

The exterior remains impressive and the building is one of the clearest physical reminders of the Italian colonial period in Tripoli. The colonial-era neighbourhood around it, with its wide boulevards and arcaded buildings, is worth exploring on foot and offers a very different character from the tight lanes of the medina to the north.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The cathedral was consecrated in 1928 as the centrepiece of Italian colonial Tripoli, designed by the architect Saffo Panteri in a Romanesque-Byzantine style. After Libyan independence in 1951, the Italian community dwindled but the church remained active. Gaddafi converted it to a mosque in 1970, on the first anniversary of the revolution, symbolically ending the Italian presence in the city. The bell towers were converted to minarets.