Description
The Monument to Don John of Austria is the bronze statue in Piazza Catalani, in Messina, at the end of Via Cesare Battisti. It celebrates the victor of the Battle of Lepanto, who set out from Messina itself with the Christian fleet.
It was sculpted in 1573 by Andrea Calamech of Carrara, commissioned by the Senate of Messina. Don John, the natural son of Emperor Charles V, was just twenty-four, and the statue faithfully portrays his young face.
The commander wears full Spanish armor. In his right hand he grips the three-part baton of command, symbol of the triple alliance against the Turks, and with his left foot he tramples the severed head of Ali Pasha, the enemy admiral.
The marble base carries four bronze plaques. The main one records the league against the Turks, the dates of the departure from Messina, of the battle and of the return, the number of ships and the names of the senators of the time.
The other three are bas-reliefs. One shows the fleet in battle order with Don John's royal ship in the center, another the battle, with ships locked in combat and some Turkish boats already fleeing.
The last depicts the victorious fleet's return to Messina and, at the top, a bird's-eye map of Messina: a portrait of the city as it was in the 16th century.
The statue has moved house several times. It originally stood in the square of the Royal Palace, where during the anti-Spanish revolt of 1674–1678 it was hit by a Spanish cannonball. Damaged again by the 1783 earthquake, it was moved in front of the church of the Annunziata dei Teatini, on Corso Cavour.
That square disappeared with the rebuilding after 1908, and the statue arrived at its current site. The sword has had an eventful history too: replaced during the 1852 restoration, it was lost again around the 1950s.
The statue has also earned a playful nickname, "the guitarist's statue", because of the shadow it casts on the building behind it. In 1978, four hundred years after Don John's death, a copy was erected in Regensburg, Germany.
It was sculpted in 1573 by Andrea Calamech of Carrara, commissioned by the Senate of Messina. Don John, the natural son of Emperor Charles V, was just twenty-four, and the statue faithfully portrays his young face.
The commander wears full Spanish armor. In his right hand he grips the three-part baton of command, symbol of the triple alliance against the Turks, and with his left foot he tramples the severed head of Ali Pasha, the enemy admiral.
The marble base carries four bronze plaques. The main one records the league against the Turks, the dates of the departure from Messina, of the battle and of the return, the number of ships and the names of the senators of the time.
The other three are bas-reliefs. One shows the fleet in battle order with Don John's royal ship in the center, another the battle, with ships locked in combat and some Turkish boats already fleeing.
The last depicts the victorious fleet's return to Messina and, at the top, a bird's-eye map of Messina: a portrait of the city as it was in the 16th century.
The statue has moved house several times. It originally stood in the square of the Royal Palace, where during the anti-Spanish revolt of 1674–1678 it was hit by a Spanish cannonball. Damaged again by the 1783 earthquake, it was moved in front of the church of the Annunziata dei Teatini, on Corso Cavour.
That square disappeared with the rebuilding after 1908, and the statue arrived at its current site. The sword has had an eventful history too: replaced during the 1852 restoration, it was lost again around the 1950s.
The statue has also earned a playful nickname, "the guitarist's statue", because of the shadow it casts on the building behind it. In 1978, four hundred years after Don John's death, a copy was erected in Regensburg, Germany.