Description
The Palazzo del Monte di Pietà is the 17th-century palace on Via XXIV Maggio, in Messina, that housed the Monte di Pietà: the pawnshop founded to save the poor from moneylenders. Today its courtyard and grand staircase are the setting for concerts, shows and exhibitions.
In the entrance hall is a fountain with a cherub riding a dolphin, from 1732. In the courtyard rises the monumental staircase of 1741, in red-veined Taormina marble, with the fountain of the statue of Abundance halfway up. At the top stood the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, which lost its paintings in the earthquakes.
It was commissioned in 1616 by the Archconfraternity of the Azzurri, named after the color of their cloaks, from the Jesuit architect Natale Masuccio, who died in 1619 with only the ground floor finished. On the façade, the inscription "MAIOR OMNIUM CHARITAS 1789" recalls the work done after the earthquake of 1783.
In the entrance hall is a fountain with a cherub riding a dolphin, from 1732. In the courtyard rises the monumental staircase of 1741, in red-veined Taormina marble, with the fountain of the statue of Abundance halfway up. At the top stood the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, which lost its paintings in the earthquakes.
It was commissioned in 1616 by the Archconfraternity of the Azzurri, named after the color of their cloaks, from the Jesuit architect Natale Masuccio, who died in 1619 with only the ground floor finished. On the façade, the inscription "MAIOR OMNIUM CHARITAS 1789" recalls the work done after the earthquake of 1783.