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Messina
It was decided to rebuild Messina exactly where it stood before, but with wide avenues and low buildings, to lessen the risk for the future. The duomo (open 8-7) in the centre, originally built by Great-Count Roger and one of the grandest Norman churches in Sicily, was lovingly and patiently rebuilt from its fragments, as far as possible (the impressive columns inside are made of cement), but it was gutted by a World War II bomb and once more reconstructed, while the Orion Fountain (1553) in front of it was fortunately little damaged. Made by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, who had worked in Michelangelo's atelier, Orion, the mythical founder of Messina, stands on the top with Sirius his dog, while around the bowl are four statues representing great rivers, accompanied by a host of tritons, dolphins and sea-monsters, in a particularly successful composition. The fountain caused quite a stir in Sicily when it was unveiled, causing Palermo to hastily find something equally magnificent; the result is the huge Pretoria Fountain outside the town hall, recycled from the garden of a Tuscan villa. To the left of the duomo is the Clock Tower (1933), housing a remarkable astronomical clock made in Strasbourg, which functions at noon every day, when the mechanical figures noisily illustrate historical episodes and religious events. On the sea-front just north of the town, near the hospital at 465 Viale della Libertà, is the Museo Regionale, previously an old silk-mill which had miraculously survived the 1908 earthquake, where the survivors brought the fragments of sculptures and paintings that they found in the rubble. The heart-rending displays of flawed works of art are an eloquent reminder of how rich the city once was, and how much damage can be inflicted by 20 seconds of a 7.5 Richter-scale earthquake. However, many masterpieces survived intact, and many more have been cleverly restored, such as the polyptych by Antonello da Messina of the Madonna with Sts Gregory and Benedict (1473), a superb blend of Flemish and Italian-Renaissance styles. There are also two great works by Caravaggio, painted 1608-9, the Nativity, showing Mary strangely placed at the bottom of the scene, and for this reason initially refused by the senate which had commissioned it, and the Raising of Lazarus, where the harmonious movement of the hands and the arms of the figures against the sombre background tells the story of Lazarus's unwilling resurrection. Taormina is not far away. To top of page |
Wind-blown Messina,
overlooking the Straits and only 3km from the Italian
mainland, has enjoyed long periods of prosperity, thanks to its superb position,
but it has also suffered very much in the course of its history. Known as
Zancle, sickle, by the Greeks because of the shape of its beautiful natural
harbour, before the discovery of America it was one of the most important
ports of the Mediterranean. Its patroness is the Madonna, to whom ambassadors
dedicated the city in 42 ad, which she accepted with a letter; her gilded
statue stands at the entrance to the harbour. In spite of this protection,
however, terrible epidemics and plagues have hit Messina from time to time
(the 14th-century Black Death is said to have entered Europe from an infected
ship which docked here), and, recalcitrant to commands from unloved rulers,
it has been bombarded mercilessly on several occasions. Moreover, it is
surrounded by a network of earthquake-prone fault-lines, causing disasters
such as that of 28 December 1908, which killed over 80,000 people and completely
destroyed the town. 