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VISITING MESSINA
Messina and the best of Sicily
Museo
Regionale
The display is arranged chronologically beginning with the
Byzantine and Norman Ages. The first rooms are devoted to
paintings, shallow reliefs and capitals. Among these is a fine
polychrome wooden Crucifix dating back to the early 1400’s (third
room on the right) and a glazed terracotta medallion from the
Della Robbia workshop depicting the Virgin gently gazing down at
her Child. The works in the next room betrays the Flemish
influence. A strong sense of realism and an astute attention to
detail characterizes the edge of a mantle and cuffs of the
garments in the Madonna and Child attributed to a follower of
Petrus Christus (15th century). The same exquisite technique is
evident in Antonello da Messina’s beautiful, though badly damaged,
Polyptych of Saint Gregory (1473). His style assimilates several
northern features, namely the International Gothic predilection
for linearity (stance of the figures, the crisp folds of falling
drapery). In the same room is a fine Deposition by Colijn de
Coter: in this, the drama of the scene is heightened by the
anguished expressions of the mourners bent in supporting the
weight of the dead Christ, and in the predominant use of burnt,
dull colors.
Chiesa of San Giovanni Malta – On Via S. Giovanni Malta. It
is a square building of the late-1500’s. Its west front (Via
Placida) is graced with white stone pilasters, niches and windows
(some of which are blind) and a gallery in the upper tier.
 Chiesa
di San Francesco d’Assisi o dell’Immacolata – On Viale
Boccetta. It is an imposing building that was largely rebuilt
following the 1908’s earthquake. It only retained three 1200’s
austere stone apses, relieved by narrow arches containing windows;
the two ogival portals that are later in date than the original
building; a fine rose-window on the facade.
Monte
di Pieta – Via XXIV Maggio and Piazza Crisafulli. This is a
late-Mannerist building with a facade ornamented with a massive
rusticated doorway framed between rather solid columns and a
broken pediment, above, the balcony rests on brackets carved with
volutes. Unfortunately, the upper floor, destroyed by the
earthquake, was not rebuilt, making the building look unfinished.
Today it is used as a concert and recital hall.
On the left side of the building is a gate that gives access to
what once was the consecrated ground of the church, preceded by a
majestic symmetrical flight of steps. The facade is the only
remain of the church.
 Duomo– Almost entirely rebuilt after its original Norman style following the quake of 1908, the Duomo has a facade graced
with one-light windows and a small central rose-window. The
central doorway, one of three, rebuilt using the original elements
(15th century), is flanked by two small columns supported by
lions, surmounted by a lunette bearing a Madonna with Child from
the 16th century.
On the right flank, a small building is lit with elegant two-light
windows in the Gothic-Catalan style. Inside, a fine beamed and
painted ceiling was replaced, the original one having been
destroyed by the bombings of the Second World War. The ornamental
carved rosettes along the central betray the influence of eastern
design.
Orologio astronomico – The astronomical clock is the most
interesting component of the 60m high bell-tower to the left of
the cathedral. The mechanism dating from 1933 was built in
Strasbourg. It comprises several layers, each bearing a different
display endowed with a separate movement. At the bottom, a
two-horse chariot driven by a deity indicates the day of the week;
above, the central figure of Death waves his scythe threateningly
at the child, youth, soldier or old man – the four ages of man –
that pass before him. At the third stage, the Sanctuary of
Montalto (turn left to compare it with the real one) sets the
scene for a group of figures which, according to the time of year,
represent the Nativity, Epiphany, Resurrection and Pentecost At
the top, the tableau enacts a scene relating to a local legend
whereby the Madonna delivers a letter to the ambassadors of
Messina in which she thanks and agrees to protect the inhabitants
of the town who were converted to Christianity by Saint Paul the
Apostle: the same Madonna della Lettera (Madonna of the Letter) is
the patron Saint of Messina.
Fontana
di Orione – This fine and elegant fountain rising at the
centre of Piazza del Duomo was designed by Tuscan architect
Montorsoli to commemorate the inauguration of the aqueduct.
Sculpted in a pre-Baroque style (16th century), it incorporates
allegories of four rivers Tiber, Nile, Ebro and Camaro – the
Messina river whose waters had been diverted into the new
aqueduct.
 Santissima
Annunziata dei Catalani – A short way from the Duomo, this
church rises behind via Garibaldi, among fine noble palazzi. It
was built in the 12th century during the Norman rule and
remodeled in the following century and named after the Catalan
merchants who patronized it later. The apse is a fine specimen of
the Norman composite style, that combined Roman (with small blind
arches on slender columns), Moorish (geometrical motifs in
polychrome stone) and Byzantine features (dome on a drum).
 S.
Santa Maria Alemanna – Unfortunately heavily ruined, with no
roof and facade, the church still manages to convey something of
the original Gothic style, so rare in Sicily, with its pointed
arches supported on pilasters and clusters of columns topped by
fine capitals that once articulated the aisles.
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