Description
The Sacrario di Cristo Re is the large domed church that overlooks Messina from a hill above the center, on Viale Principe Umberto. It holds the fallen of the two world wars, and from the lookout in front you can take in the city and the Strait at a glance.
The building, from 1937, is an irregular octagon in Baroque style, designed by Giovanni Battista Milani with the architecture of Messina-born Filippo Juvarra in mind, especially the Basilica of Superga in Turin.
The dome is marked by eight ribs. At their base stand eight bronze statues by Teofilo Raggio: the three theological virtues, the four cardinal virtues and Religion, which embraces them all. At the top, a six-meter lantern, a sphere and a cross.
On the entrance staircase the statue of Christ the King by Tore Edmondo Calabrò welcomes visitors. Inside, the church is on two levels: above, a Baroque altar and an octagonal balcony overlooking the lower temple.
The lower temple is the crypt of the fallen. In the center, visible from the upper level too, a marble sarcophagus bears the reclining figure of a soldier, by Antonio Bonfiglio. In the walls, thousands of niches hold the remains of 1,288 soldiers killed in World War II and 110 in World War I.
In the octagonal tower hangs the bell, 2.80 meters wide and weighing 13 tons, cast from the bronze of enemy cannons from the Great War. Every evening at sunset its tolling remembers the fallen of all wars.
The hill had always been a key point for controlling the city and the port. The castle of Matagrifone stood here, and the polygonal tower incorporated into the base of the memorial is what remains of it.
The castle's name is linked to Richard the Lionheart. In 1190, on his way to the Holy Land for the Third Crusade, he stopped in Messina and quarreled with King Tancred of Sicily over the dowry of his sister Joan, widow of the previous king.
Richard occupied the city and had a wooden tower built called Mata Grifone, meaning "kill the Greeks", to keep in check the "Greeks" of Messina, who were hostile to his presence. In the end Tancred chose to come to terms and paid.
The castle had other illustrious guests. When the Vespers broke out in 1282, the Angevins shut themselves inside its walls and obtained leave to depart the city unharmed; two years later Charles II of Anjou, known as the Lame, was held prisoner in the tower.
Don't miss
• The Montorsoli lookout.
• The lower temple with the marble soldier.
• The dome with the statues of the Virtues.
Did you know?
• The memorial's bell is the third largest in Italy.
• The castle was later turned into a prison, and of its 16th-century portal an entrance with a grotesque mask remains on Via delle Carceri.
The building, from 1937, is an irregular octagon in Baroque style, designed by Giovanni Battista Milani with the architecture of Messina-born Filippo Juvarra in mind, especially the Basilica of Superga in Turin.
The dome is marked by eight ribs. At their base stand eight bronze statues by Teofilo Raggio: the three theological virtues, the four cardinal virtues and Religion, which embraces them all. At the top, a six-meter lantern, a sphere and a cross.
On the entrance staircase the statue of Christ the King by Tore Edmondo Calabrò welcomes visitors. Inside, the church is on two levels: above, a Baroque altar and an octagonal balcony overlooking the lower temple.
The lower temple is the crypt of the fallen. In the center, visible from the upper level too, a marble sarcophagus bears the reclining figure of a soldier, by Antonio Bonfiglio. In the walls, thousands of niches hold the remains of 1,288 soldiers killed in World War II and 110 in World War I.
In the octagonal tower hangs the bell, 2.80 meters wide and weighing 13 tons, cast from the bronze of enemy cannons from the Great War. Every evening at sunset its tolling remembers the fallen of all wars.
The hill had always been a key point for controlling the city and the port. The castle of Matagrifone stood here, and the polygonal tower incorporated into the base of the memorial is what remains of it.
The castle's name is linked to Richard the Lionheart. In 1190, on his way to the Holy Land for the Third Crusade, he stopped in Messina and quarreled with King Tancred of Sicily over the dowry of his sister Joan, widow of the previous king.
Richard occupied the city and had a wooden tower built called Mata Grifone, meaning "kill the Greeks", to keep in check the "Greeks" of Messina, who were hostile to his presence. In the end Tancred chose to come to terms and paid.
The castle had other illustrious guests. When the Vespers broke out in 1282, the Angevins shut themselves inside its walls and obtained leave to depart the city unharmed; two years later Charles II of Anjou, known as the Lame, was held prisoner in the tower.
Don't miss
• The Montorsoli lookout.
• The lower temple with the marble soldier.
• The dome with the statues of the Virtues.
Did you know?
• The memorial's bell is the third largest in Italy.
• The castle was later turned into a prison, and of its 16th-century portal an entrance with a grotesque mask remains on Via delle Carceri.