Description
The Co-cathedral of the Most Holy Saviour is Messina's second cathedral, a 20th-century church that preserves a very ancient title: that of the Archimandrite, the institution that for centuries led the Greek-rite monasteries of Sicily and Calabria.
The building, put up between 1928 and 1932, is a large two-storey complex with the church façade at its centre, dominated by the statue of Christ giving a blessing. Inside, a nave and two aisles are divided by Corinthian columns with Baroque-style stuccoes; the vault and the frescoes were restored after the wartime bombing. Next door is the Salesian oratory.
The story begins with Roger the Norman, who founded a large Basilian monastery on the tip of the San Raineri peninsula. Linked to the archimandrites, an academy of Greek language flourished in Messina in the 15th century, led among others by the humanist Constantine Lascaris.
The 1908 earthquake destroyed the monastery, which had meanwhile moved to where the Regional Museum stands today. Archbishop Angelo Paino then gave the Archimandrite this new home, and from 1943 to 1946, with the cathedral hit by bombs, it served as the cathedral.
The building, put up between 1928 and 1932, is a large two-storey complex with the church façade at its centre, dominated by the statue of Christ giving a blessing. Inside, a nave and two aisles are divided by Corinthian columns with Baroque-style stuccoes; the vault and the frescoes were restored after the wartime bombing. Next door is the Salesian oratory.
The story begins with Roger the Norman, who founded a large Basilian monastery on the tip of the San Raineri peninsula. Linked to the archimandrites, an academy of Greek language flourished in Messina in the 15th century, led among others by the humanist Constantine Lascaris.
The 1908 earthquake destroyed the monastery, which had meanwhile moved to where the Regional Museum stands today. Archbishop Angelo Paino then gave the Archimandrite this new home, and from 1943 to 1946, with the cathedral hit by bombs, it served as the cathedral.