Description
The Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani is a small medieval church in the center of Messina, between Via Garibaldi and Via Cesare Battisti, and one of the oldest buildings in the city. In a compact space it blends Byzantine, Arab, Norman and Romanesque forms.
The first thing that strikes you is the level: the church sits about three meters below the street. After the 1908 earthquake the rubble was leveled and the street rose, while the church stayed at the height of the earlier Messina.
The finest side is that of the apses. Above the transept rises a small cylindrical dome ringed by blind arcading on slender columns and narrow windows, in a lively play of colors and geometry.
Outside, columns with elegant capitals are linked by inlaid two-tone arches. Inside, three plain naves, separated by columns with Arab-Byzantine capitals and round arches, immediately give a sense of quiet.
In the central apse there is a 16th-century crucifix, and a canvas of the Immaculate Conception painted in 1606 by Tomas Montella has returned to the church. The major works, however, are elsewhere: a panel of the Annunciation from 1505, with a view of the city, is in the Regional Museum.
Its origins are very old. It is thought to stand on the remains of a Greek temple dedicated to Poseidon, later turned into a mosque in the time of the emirs: an Arabic inscription on the jambs of the portal would suggest so.
It was rebuilt under the Norman king William II, in the 12th century, when it stood inside the walls of the Castello a Mare, the fortress next to the arsenal and the port. In 1271 the Dominican friars, newly arrived in Sicily, found their first home here.
Under the Aragonese it became a royal chapel. Much of the dues paid by ships flying the Aragonese flag that docked in Messina went to its upkeep: in practice, the port paid for the king's church.
At the end of the 15th century the confraternity of Catalan merchants met here, gave the church its name and enriched it with works of art. The confraternity, the Nobile Arciconfraternita della Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, is still based here today.
Don't miss
• The apses and the small dome.
• The two-tone arches.
• The interior with three naves.
Did you know?
• A masterpiece by Polidoro da Caravaggio, the Way to Calvary, was in this church: after the 1783 earthquake the Catalans gave it to the king, and today it is in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
The first thing that strikes you is the level: the church sits about three meters below the street. After the 1908 earthquake the rubble was leveled and the street rose, while the church stayed at the height of the earlier Messina.
The finest side is that of the apses. Above the transept rises a small cylindrical dome ringed by blind arcading on slender columns and narrow windows, in a lively play of colors and geometry.
Outside, columns with elegant capitals are linked by inlaid two-tone arches. Inside, three plain naves, separated by columns with Arab-Byzantine capitals and round arches, immediately give a sense of quiet.
In the central apse there is a 16th-century crucifix, and a canvas of the Immaculate Conception painted in 1606 by Tomas Montella has returned to the church. The major works, however, are elsewhere: a panel of the Annunciation from 1505, with a view of the city, is in the Regional Museum.
Its origins are very old. It is thought to stand on the remains of a Greek temple dedicated to Poseidon, later turned into a mosque in the time of the emirs: an Arabic inscription on the jambs of the portal would suggest so.
It was rebuilt under the Norman king William II, in the 12th century, when it stood inside the walls of the Castello a Mare, the fortress next to the arsenal and the port. In 1271 the Dominican friars, newly arrived in Sicily, found their first home here.
Under the Aragonese it became a royal chapel. Much of the dues paid by ships flying the Aragonese flag that docked in Messina went to its upkeep: in practice, the port paid for the king's church.
At the end of the 15th century the confraternity of Catalan merchants met here, gave the church its name and enriched it with works of art. The confraternity, the Nobile Arciconfraternita della Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, is still based here today.
Don't miss
• The apses and the small dome.
• The two-tone arches.
• The interior with three naves.
Did you know?
• A masterpiece by Polidoro da Caravaggio, the Way to Calvary, was in this church: after the 1783 earthquake the Catalans gave it to the king, and today it is in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.