Description
Villa Giuseppe Mazzini is the public garden in the centre of Messina, between the Prefecture, the church of San Giovanni di Malta, Viale Boccetta and Via Garibaldi. Born as “La Flora”, it is one of the places locals love most for their free time.
The Italian-style garden was designed by the Swiss engineer Enrico Fehr. Among the flowerbeds grow Mediterranean and exotic plants, and there are play areas for children, an aviary with exotic birds and, along the paths, busts of famous people from Messina such as Francesco Maurolico, as well as one of Mazzini. The park also houses the municipal aquarium.
Before the garden, this was the Piano di San Giovanni, a large, theatrical square built over an ancient Roman necropolis. Its great basin served as a trough for horses, for washing clothes and for processing silk, then the city's leading industry.
For the Feast of the Assumption, a precious galley paid for by the clergy was floated in the basin. Depending on the version, it recalled the Messinese embassy to Mary, the return of the fleet from Lepanto or some ships laden with grain that reached the port during a famine.
The Italian-style garden was designed by the Swiss engineer Enrico Fehr. Among the flowerbeds grow Mediterranean and exotic plants, and there are play areas for children, an aviary with exotic birds and, along the paths, busts of famous people from Messina such as Francesco Maurolico, as well as one of Mazzini. The park also houses the municipal aquarium.
Before the garden, this was the Piano di San Giovanni, a large, theatrical square built over an ancient Roman necropolis. Its great basin served as a trough for horses, for washing clothes and for processing silk, then the city's leading industry.
For the Feast of the Assumption, a precious galley paid for by the clergy was floated in the basin. Depending on the version, it recalled the Messinese embassy to Mary, the return of the fleet from Lepanto or some ships laden with grain that reached the port during a famine.