Description
Messina's Palazzo della Cultura, the "Palacultura Antonello da Messina", is the city's big cultural center on Viale Boccetta: a building in three blocks that widens toward the top like an upside-down pyramid, hard to miss.
There is a lot inside: an 850-seat theater, an open-air auditorium, rooms for exhibitions and conferences, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAMM) and the Tommaso Cannizzaro city library. It is worth checking the program: concerts, shows and exhibitions all come through here.
Its story is a lesson in patience. The design by engineer Aldo D'Amore and architect Fabio Basile won the competition in 1975; in 1982 the excavations uncovered Roman tombs and work came to a halt. The building opened to the public only on February 12, 2010, thirty-five years later.
In 2009, with the work just finished, an art historian noticed how strongly it resembles Boston City Hall, from 1969.
There is a lot inside: an 850-seat theater, an open-air auditorium, rooms for exhibitions and conferences, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAMM) and the Tommaso Cannizzaro city library. It is worth checking the program: concerts, shows and exhibitions all come through here.
Its story is a lesson in patience. The design by engineer Aldo D'Amore and architect Fabio Basile won the competition in 1975; in 1982 the excavations uncovered Roman tombs and work came to a halt. The building opened to the public only on February 12, 2010, thirty-five years later.
In 2009, with the work just finished, an art historian noticed how strongly it resembles Boston City Hall, from 1969.