Messina sightseeing

The churches and museum of Messina

The Messina Cathedral and its square

The Duomo (tel. +39-090-672-179), on a pleasant pedestrian piazza, was largely rebuilt after World War II. But set into the lower facade are some great 12th– and 15th-century remains: a portal and cartoon-like strips of reliefs with worn but compelling medieval scenes which seem primarily concerned with tilling the fields, grinding meal, harvesting grapes, and other peasant activities.

Next to the cathedral is a 1933 belltower housing the largest astronomocial clock in the world; the windows are dripping with mechanical figures that dance around at noon. In front of it is Montorsoli's 1547 masterpiece Orion Fountain.

Maria SS. Annunziata dei Catalani

A blocks southeast of the Duomo (head down Via I Settember, then left on Via Cesare Battisti) you'll find the little 12th-century Arab-Norman church of Maria SS. Annunziata dei Catalani (tel. +39-090-661-691), built between 1150 and 1200 on the site of pagan temple to Neptune and near the customs house of Byzantine-era Messina.

Walk all the way around the little church onto the Via Garibaldi Giuseppe side to admire the intricately decorated late Byzantine exterior—apses, domes, and blind arcades spelled out in brick and yellow, red, charcoal grey, and white stone.

So why is the apse end so richly decorated but the facade so relatively tame? The church actually used to be twice as long—until a tidal wave in the Middle Ages caused part of the nave to cave in. What remained was truncated and a new facade added.

In the 15th century, above the door was affixed the now-vanished coat of arms for the powerful Catalan Merchants guild, which adopted the hcurch as its seat (hence the last half of the church's name).

The reason the church seems is in a hollow several feet below ground level: the modern "ground level" of this part of Messina is actually built atop a thick layer of rubble from the 1908 earthquake. It's simply that the rubble was cleared away from around the church but not the surrounding area.

The spare interior is only open 8:30am to 10:30am.

The Museo Regionale

In the north part of town you'll find Messina's best sight and one of the best art museums in this part of Sicily, the Museo Regionale, Viale della Libertà 465 (tel. +39-090-361-292).

It features some good 13th-century mosaics from San Giorgio church, Antonello da Messina's ruinous S. Giorgio Polyptych (1473), some Madonna and Child sculptures from Francesco Laurana and Antonello Gagini, and Giovanni Angelo da Montorsoli's genuinely scary 1557 statue of Scilla (once part of a fountain).

But the stars of the collection are a pair of paintings by that baroque master of mood and shadows Caravaggio: The Raising of Lazarus and Adoration of the Shepherds.

To get to the museum using public transport, take bus 76, 77, or 78 from Piazza Cavalotti (a tree-shaded triangle two blocks up Via I Settembre from Piazza Repubblica, where the bus and train stations are) all the way to the north end of Viale della Libertà and its intersection with Viale Annunziata (the museum is on your left just beofre that intersection).

The museum is open Mon and Fri 9am–1:30pm; Tues, Thurs, and Sat 9am–1:30pm and 4-6:30pm (to 5:30pm in winter), Sun 9am–12:30pm. (Adm)

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