Description
The Fort of the Santissimo Salvatore, with the stele of the Madonna della Lettera, guards the entrance to Messina's harbor on the tip of the San Raineri peninsula, the "sickle" that embraces the port. The gilded Madonna on top of the column is one of the city's symbols.
If you arrive in Messina by ship, you meet her right at the harbor mouth. The stele is an octagonal column that tapers toward the top and, from the waterline to the Virgin's crown of stars, reaches about 60 meters.
At the top, on a globe more than two and a half meters wide, stands the gilded bronze statue of the Madonna, 7 meters tall. With her right hand she blesses, with her left she holds the letter that, according to tradition, she sent to the people of Messina.
At the base, on the round wall of the bastion, the Latin phrase from the letter runs in huge letters: VOS ET IPSAM CIVITATEM BENEDICIMUS, "we bless you and your city". At night lights on the capital illuminate the statue.
The fort below the stele is a 16th-century fortress, low and elongated, following the shape of the peninsula. At its tip is a semicylindrical bastion, the "Forte Campana", the core of the first design: the stele rests on it. The fort is an Italian Navy base: you admire the stele from the outside.
It was commissioned by Charles V and his viceroy Ferrante Gonzaga after the emperor's visit to Messina in 1535, as part of a defensive system covering the whole city. It was designed by the military architects Pietro Antonio Tomasello and Antonio Ferramolino.
The name comes from the old monastery of the Santissimo Salvatore, which stood right here. To fortify the harbor entrance Charles V had it demolished and rebuilt in the area where the Regional Museum stands today. Inside the fort the base of the medieval tower of Sant'Anna remains.
The fortress changed hands several times. Messina's insurgents took it during the anti-Spanish revolt of 1674; in 1848 the Bourbon army used it to bombard the rebel city; in 1861 it was stormed by Garibaldi's troops.
The stele was raised in 1934 at the wish of Archbishop Angelo Paino, the same man who had brought the Cathedral back to life after the 1908 earthquake. It was designed by Francesco Barbaro, while the statue is by the sculptor Tore Edmondo Calabrò.
Its inauguration, on August 12, 1934, made the news as far as the Times of London. Pope Pius XI, from Castel Gandolfo, blessed the stele and switched on its lights remotely, thanks to a radio system devised by Guglielmo Marconi.
Damaged by the bombing of World War II, it was quickly restored. In 1947 Pius XII repeated the same ceremony by radio to celebrate the end of the work.
Don't miss
• The statue of the Madonna della Lettera.
• The inscription VOS ET IPSAM CIVITATEM BENEDICIMUS.
• The Forte Campana.
Did you know?
• A crystal copy of the stele was given to Pius XI; his successor returned it to Messina.
• The statue was crowned in 1954, on the anniversary of the departure from Messina of the Christian fleet bound for Lepanto.
If you arrive in Messina by ship, you meet her right at the harbor mouth. The stele is an octagonal column that tapers toward the top and, from the waterline to the Virgin's crown of stars, reaches about 60 meters.
At the top, on a globe more than two and a half meters wide, stands the gilded bronze statue of the Madonna, 7 meters tall. With her right hand she blesses, with her left she holds the letter that, according to tradition, she sent to the people of Messina.
At the base, on the round wall of the bastion, the Latin phrase from the letter runs in huge letters: VOS ET IPSAM CIVITATEM BENEDICIMUS, "we bless you and your city". At night lights on the capital illuminate the statue.
The fort below the stele is a 16th-century fortress, low and elongated, following the shape of the peninsula. At its tip is a semicylindrical bastion, the "Forte Campana", the core of the first design: the stele rests on it. The fort is an Italian Navy base: you admire the stele from the outside.
It was commissioned by Charles V and his viceroy Ferrante Gonzaga after the emperor's visit to Messina in 1535, as part of a defensive system covering the whole city. It was designed by the military architects Pietro Antonio Tomasello and Antonio Ferramolino.
The name comes from the old monastery of the Santissimo Salvatore, which stood right here. To fortify the harbor entrance Charles V had it demolished and rebuilt in the area where the Regional Museum stands today. Inside the fort the base of the medieval tower of Sant'Anna remains.
The fortress changed hands several times. Messina's insurgents took it during the anti-Spanish revolt of 1674; in 1848 the Bourbon army used it to bombard the rebel city; in 1861 it was stormed by Garibaldi's troops.
The stele was raised in 1934 at the wish of Archbishop Angelo Paino, the same man who had brought the Cathedral back to life after the 1908 earthquake. It was designed by Francesco Barbaro, while the statue is by the sculptor Tore Edmondo Calabrò.
Its inauguration, on August 12, 1934, made the news as far as the Times of London. Pope Pius XI, from Castel Gandolfo, blessed the stele and switched on its lights remotely, thanks to a radio system devised by Guglielmo Marconi.
Damaged by the bombing of World War II, it was quickly restored. In 1947 Pius XII repeated the same ceremony by radio to celebrate the end of the work.
Don't miss
• The statue of the Madonna della Lettera.
• The inscription VOS ET IPSAM CIVITATEM BENEDICIMUS.
• The Forte Campana.
Did you know?
• A crystal copy of the stele was given to Pius XI; his successor returned it to Messina.
• The statue was crowned in 1954, on the anniversary of the departure from Messina of the Christian fleet bound for Lepanto.