Messina | Sicily, Italy – 4K Virtual Walking Tour around the City – ( Italy During Corona Lockdown )
Places in this video :
This evening’s walking tour of Messina was filmed on Monday, March 15th, 2021. Messina is the third-largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th-largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 238,000 inhabitants in the city proper and about 650,000 in the Metropolitan City.
01. Cathedral and the Piazza del Duomo:
The cathedral forms one end of the wide Piazza del Duomo, Messina’s historic centre, and in front of it is the Orion fountain. On the left long side of the cathedral stands the Baroque column of the Virgin Mary by Giuseppe Buceti, erected in 1758.
The church was built in the 1100s by the Normans, who ruled Sicily at the time, but it was seriously damaged by an earthquake that devastated much of Messina in 1908. Barely recovered from that, the cathedral was again severely damaged by the World War II bombing.
Following both, the reconstruction remained true to the original form and retained important later features such as the carved stone portals from the late Gothic period, medieval relief carvings on the lower facade, and three apses on the east side that date from its founding. Like all Norman cathedrals in Sicily, the cathedral is a columned basilica with three aisles, a transept, and three apses.
The monumental interior has a brightly coloured roof truss and arcades with pointed arches; the apse mosaics of the enthroned Christ are reconstructions, as are the apostle altars of the side aisles.
02. Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani:
The second most important church in Messina is the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani. It is the only building to have survived the earthquake of 1908 but was not so fortunate in the World War II bombing. The church was built in the second half of the 12th century under Norman rule, and the east side dates from this time.
The main apse between the transept arms is distinguished by the delicate architectonic arrangement of its false arcades on small elegant columns, and by its multi-coloured building materials. The west side with its three portals dates from the 13th century when the building underwent some alterations.
In the three-aisled interior, stilted arches are supported on columns with a variety of capitals. The central aisle has barrel vaulting, while the side aisles have cross vaulting.
03. Fontana di Nettuno (Neptune Fountain):
Equally beloved by locals, the Fontana del Nettuno, or Neptune Fountain, is located in a park, set apart from the city centre. It was built in 1557 and, like the Orion fountain, is a work of Montorsoli.
The fountain shows the god of the sea caught between Scylla and Charybdis, the two monsters made famous by Homer in The Odyssey as the guards at either side of the Strait of Messina.
The Via Della Liberta begins at this fountain and leads out of the city towards the exhibition ground of the Fiera di Messina.