Messina

Mary, protector of Messina, blesses the city’s harbor from the end of a long jetty. In the background are the Straits of Messina, with Sicily on the left and the mainland of Italy just a mile and a half away on the right. Ferries cross it in just 20 minutes.

Puppet theater is a classic form of Sicilian entertainment, and we toured a museum of puppets in Messina maintained by a single family of puppeteers. Here the king and his knight share a conversation, while other displays had three-foot tall knights sword fighting or posed to show off their impressive armor.

The restored ceiling in Messina’s Cathedral shows beautiful painted details that elaborate on the original design. European cathedrals invite you to gaze upward with their towering columns, but the details of their often intricate ceilings are worth meditating on as well.

The main hall of the Messina Cathedral is over 800 years old, but the decorative ceiling and almost all of the mosaics are 20th century reconstructions after earthquake and bomb damage took a heavy toll.

Messina’s Cathedral bell tower of moving statues marks the time and entertains visitors. According to legend, Dina and Clarenza (large figures) helped repel an attack in 1282 by ringing bells, which they do each 15 minutes. The rooster flaps its wings and loudly crows three times at Noon.

A monumental fountain of Orion fills part of the square in front of Messina’s Cathedral and bell tower. The Cathedral was almost entirely rebuilt after the 1908 earthquake and again after a fire caused by Allied bombing in 1943.

An early morning earthquake in 1908 destroyed nearly all of Messina and killed 60,000 residents. This memorial honors the Russian marines on a ship in the harbor who were the first rescuers to begin pulling people out of the ruins. The red roses show that the event is still fresh for local residents.

This fountain of Neptune built in 1557, looks out to the Straits of Messina where the mythological monsters Scylla and Charybdis once threatened mariners such as Odysseus. Scylla was a six-headed creature that preyed on passing sailors, while Charybdis was a massive whirlpool that sank many ships.

Messina, the city on Sicily that looks across to the Italian mainland, climbs the hills above the harbor with churches and buildings that have been rebuilt after the twin 20th century disasters of a major earthquake and heavy bombing during World War II.