Description
Messina Cathedral is the city's cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta: a large church of Norman origin, built in stone and banded colored marble, facing Piazza del Duomo next to its bell tower with the astronomical clock.
What you visit is largely a reconstruction. The 1908 earthquake devastated it and in 1943 a bombing raid turned it into a blaze, but both times it was rebuilt in its medieval forms, with faithful copies of statues, marble and mosaics.
The facade, together with the apses, is what survived the 1943 fire: bands of inlaid polychrome marble below, stone above with a rose window and three Gothic windows. The central portal, by Antonio Baboccio da Piperno, dates from around 1412, with twisted colonnettes and statues of saints.
Inside, three naves separated by two rows of thirteen columns support pointed arches and a painted wooden ceiling. Along the walls runs the Apostolato, twelve altars with statues of the apostles designed by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, the sculptor of the Fountain of Orion in the square.
The altar statues are almost all postwar. The exception is the Saint John the Baptist by Antonello Gagini, from 1525: it is the only statue, together with its altar, that survived the 1943 fire.
At the far end of the apse, under a gilded copper canopy, is the image of the Madonna della Lettera, the city's patron saint, covered by a silver mantle. Above it, the mosaic shows Christ enthroned among the archangels, with the Virgin and Kings Frederick III and Peter II.
In the transept is the tomb of Archbishop Guidotto de Abbiate, carved by the Sienese sculptor Goro di Gregorio in 1333, with four reliefs of the life of Christ. The organ, from 1948, has five keyboards and about 16,000 pipes: it is the second largest in Italy after the one in Milan Cathedral.
The Treasury, in a wing added to the side of the church, holds mainly silverwork by Messina's goldsmiths. The most precious piece is the Manta d'oro of 1668, the robe of chased gold that on major feast days covers the image of the Madonna, leaving only her face and hands uncovered.
To pay for it, the Senate of Messina imposed a tax on the University's graduating students. Over the centuries the faithful of every class, from sovereigns to commoners, have added diamonds, rubies and sapphires to it as votive offerings.
The 67-meter bell tower was rebuilt after 1908 on the design of the old one. It houses a huge astronomical clock built in 1933 by the Ungerer company of Strasbourg, considered one of the largest and most complex in the world.
At noon the show involves the whole tower. A gilded bronze lion waves the flag of Messina and roars, a rooster flaps its wings and crows, and the heroines Dina and Clarenza strike the quarter hours on the bells.
Further down, six ambassadors parade and bow before the Madonna della Lettera, who blesses them. The rooster stands for the Angevins, defeated and driven out by the people of Messina during the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282.
Don't miss
• The central portal.
• Saint John the Baptist by Antonello Gagini.
• The Manta d'oro in the Treasury.
• The astronomical clock at noon.
Did you know?
• In 1254 the cathedral burned down during the funeral of King Conrad.
• Until 1678 the base of the bell tower held the parchments of the city archive, which after the anti-Spanish revolt ended up at El Escorial, in Spain.
• On the clock, every quarter hour the four ages of life parade before a skeleton with a scythe.
What you visit is largely a reconstruction. The 1908 earthquake devastated it and in 1943 a bombing raid turned it into a blaze, but both times it was rebuilt in its medieval forms, with faithful copies of statues, marble and mosaics.
The facade, together with the apses, is what survived the 1943 fire: bands of inlaid polychrome marble below, stone above with a rose window and three Gothic windows. The central portal, by Antonio Baboccio da Piperno, dates from around 1412, with twisted colonnettes and statues of saints.
Inside, three naves separated by two rows of thirteen columns support pointed arches and a painted wooden ceiling. Along the walls runs the Apostolato, twelve altars with statues of the apostles designed by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, the sculptor of the Fountain of Orion in the square.
The altar statues are almost all postwar. The exception is the Saint John the Baptist by Antonello Gagini, from 1525: it is the only statue, together with its altar, that survived the 1943 fire.
At the far end of the apse, under a gilded copper canopy, is the image of the Madonna della Lettera, the city's patron saint, covered by a silver mantle. Above it, the mosaic shows Christ enthroned among the archangels, with the Virgin and Kings Frederick III and Peter II.
In the transept is the tomb of Archbishop Guidotto de Abbiate, carved by the Sienese sculptor Goro di Gregorio in 1333, with four reliefs of the life of Christ. The organ, from 1948, has five keyboards and about 16,000 pipes: it is the second largest in Italy after the one in Milan Cathedral.
The Treasury, in a wing added to the side of the church, holds mainly silverwork by Messina's goldsmiths. The most precious piece is the Manta d'oro of 1668, the robe of chased gold that on major feast days covers the image of the Madonna, leaving only her face and hands uncovered.
To pay for it, the Senate of Messina imposed a tax on the University's graduating students. Over the centuries the faithful of every class, from sovereigns to commoners, have added diamonds, rubies and sapphires to it as votive offerings.
The 67-meter bell tower was rebuilt after 1908 on the design of the old one. It houses a huge astronomical clock built in 1933 by the Ungerer company of Strasbourg, considered one of the largest and most complex in the world.
At noon the show involves the whole tower. A gilded bronze lion waves the flag of Messina and roars, a rooster flaps its wings and crows, and the heroines Dina and Clarenza strike the quarter hours on the bells.
Further down, six ambassadors parade and bow before the Madonna della Lettera, who blesses them. The rooster stands for the Angevins, defeated and driven out by the people of Messina during the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282.
Don't miss
• The central portal.
• Saint John the Baptist by Antonello Gagini.
• The Manta d'oro in the Treasury.
• The astronomical clock at noon.
Did you know?
• In 1254 the cathedral burned down during the funeral of King Conrad.
• Until 1678 the base of the bell tower held the parchments of the city archive, which after the anti-Spanish revolt ended up at El Escorial, in Spain.
• On the clock, every quarter hour the four ages of life parade before a skeleton with a scythe.