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May 26, 2012: A Sea Day |
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Return to the Index for Our Mediterranean Cruise |
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Arriving at Messina
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In the aerial views you'll see of Messina, there is a ship docked right where the Noordam was. It isn't the Noordam, of course, but for all practical purposes you can assume that we were in the same position as the ship you see. Plainly, we are only a short walk away from the sightseeing spots in the city of Messina.
Messina is the capital of the Italian province of Messina and the third largest city on the island of Sicily, with a population of a quarter-million. It is at the northeast corner of the island. Its economy is comprised of the port and shipyards, agriculture (including wine production and the cultivation of lemons, oranges, mandarin oranges and olives) and tourism. The city is a Roman Catholic Archdiocese since 1548.
As you read a bit of the history of this ancient city, you can use the clickable thumbnails to have a look at a few of the pictures that Fred took of the city as the Noordam was being brought into its dock.
Messina was founded by the Greeks in 8th century B.C., and was originally called "Zancle," for the shape of its harbor (the word being a derivation of the Greek word for "scythe." In the early 5th century B.C., Anaxilas of Rhegium renamed it Messene in honor of the Greek city Messene. The city was sacked in 397 B.C. by the Carthaginians and then reconquered by Dionysius I of Syracuse.
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In 288 B.C. the Mamertines seized the city, which led to a conflict with the expanding regional empire of Syracuse. When Syracuse attacked the city, Carthage assisted the Mamertines, and when Syracuse attacked again in 264 B.C., the Mamertines petitioned the Roman Republic for an alliance. Wishing to check the Carthaginian expansion of influence on the island, Rome deployed troops there- the first time a Roman army acted outside the Italian Peninsula. At the end of the First Punic War Messina became a free city allied with Rome; an important pharos (lighthouse) was built there.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city was successively ruled by the Goths, the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs in 842, and, in 1061, by the Norman brothers Robert Guiscard and Roger Guiscard. In 1189 the English King Richard I stopped at Messina en route to the Holy Land and briefly occupied the city after a dispute over the dowry of his sister, who had been married to William the Good, King of Sicily.
Messina was most likely the harbour at which the Black Death entered Europe: the plague was brought by Genoese ships coming from Caffa in the Crimea. The world's first Jesuit college was founded there in 1548 by St. Ignatius. The city reached its peak in the early 17th century under Spanish rule: at the time it was one of the ten greatest cities in Europe. In 1674, the city rebelled against the foreign garrison, but it was eventually reconquered by the Spaniards and sacked; the university, the senate and all the privileges of autonomy it had enjoyed since the Roman times were abolished. A massive fortress was built by the occupants and Messina decayed steadily. In 1743, 48,000 died of plague in Messina, and in 1783, an earthquake devastated much of the city; it took decades to rebuild and rekindle its cultural life.
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In 1847, the Risorgimento riots broke out, and in 1848 it rebelled openly against the reigning Bourbons. Only in 1860, after Garibaldine troops occupied the city, did Messina attain a measure of independence, but the entire island became a recognized part of Italy. Sadly, the city was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake and associated tsunami on the morning of December 28, 1908, killing about 60,000 people and destroying most of the ancient architecture. The city was largely rebuilt in the following year, according to a more modern and rational plan. It incurred further damage from the massive Allied air bombardments of 1943, which caused thousands of deaths. Since then, the history of Messina has been quiet; it was the site of the meetings that led to the creation of the European Economic Community- forerunner of the current EU.
Messina Tour Part 1: Our Walk Along Via Cavour
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The first (arbitrary) segment of our walk will take us from the ship, around the back of the cathedral, alongside it and then a bit north to Via Cavour. We will walk northeast along Via Cavour to the south end of the park that is adjacent to Government House.
From the ship, we exited the port and crossed the street that runs alongside it. On the opposite side of the street there was a long row of buildings that had openings every half-block or so that we could go through. We chose one of them and found a sign that described "Fire Square." The sign was in Italian and English, and you can read the English version here.
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We walked west along Mercanti past an interesting building that had a courtyard with a glass ceiling and to the corner where we found another interesting building that had a scalloped corner with a fountain and balcony. I have no idea what I.N.P.S. stood for.
This brought us around the back of the Messina Cathedral and we turned left again to head towards the bell tower and plaza. Along this side of the cathedral there is a beautiful little garden (shown here looking back from the plaza) that features a large statue dedicated to the Madonna as well as some smaller sculptures.
This brought us around to the northeast corner of the plaza in front of the Messina Cathedral, just adjacent to the fountain of Orion. We spent a little while here in the plaza which at this time of the morning had relatively few people. We found that the church was not open, and that later in the morning not only would we be able to get inside the church, but we'd be able to watch the mechanical bell tower in operation. There would also be much better light for taking pictures. So even though we did take some pictures at this time, I am going to move them to the section later on when we return to the cathedral on our way back to the Noordam.
For now, we continued north along the side of the park just beyond the fountain to come to Via Cavour where we turned northeast. Just across the street was the Piazzo Della Provincia, also known as the "Palace of the Lions", one of the main administrative buildings for the province. It was designed by the architect Alessandro Giunta and built in 1914 on the site of the ancient Church of St. Augustine- the remains of which are still visible in the atrium of the building. At the northeast end of that building we came to the circular Piazza Antonello. At the northeast end of the Palace of the Lions is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele III, designed by Camillo Puglisi Allegra and built between 1924 and 1929. an example of Art Nouveau style typical of the reconstruction after the earthquake of 1908, it is an early shopping mall. Inside there are many little stores and eateries that are very popular among young people- especially in the evenings and on weekends. The galleria is bordered by large public buildings that overlook the circular Piazza Antonello: the palace of Posts and Telegraphs (the work of Vittorio Mariani), another provincial building (designed by Alessandro Giunta), and the Town Hall (designed by the architect Antonio Zanca).
Piazza Antonello was so pretty that I thought I would try my hand at a 360°-panorama, so I stood in the middle of Via Consolato del Mare, the street leading east out of the plaza, and took a series of pictures beginning at my left (looking back down Via Cavour), panning in front of me (looking up Via Sant Agostino) and going around to my right looking further up Via Cavour. Then I stitched these pictures together and the result is below:
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As you can see, Fred is on the corner to my left, and Greg is walking across the street to my right.
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Inside the Chapel of Saint Antonio Abate |
Fred and I took some nice pictures inside the chapel- of its altar, stained glass and beautifully-painted dome. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at the best of these pictures:
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We continued walking along Via Cavour until we came to a fountain at the entrance to a small park. The triangular plaza is the Piazza Giuseppe Seguenza, so named because Joseph Seguenza (1833 - 1889), Italian naturalist and geologist, was born in a nearby building. Also from here, we could see the Stele of Madonna in the Messina harbor. Built in 1934, the inscription on its base ("Vos et Ipsam civitatem benedicimus") means "I bless you and your city."
This is the end of the first segment of our walk through Messina.
Messina Walk Part 2: Government House to The Sanctuary of Maria Pompeii
From Piazza Giuseppe Seguenza, we walked north through Government Park to come out at a major intersection in front of Government House- the administrative building for the province in which Messina is located. It was built in 1920 by architect Cesare Bazzani, and is located in the beautiful Piazza of the Unification of Italy. The main feature of the plaza, which is right by the harbor, is the Fountain of Neptune, which was built by Montorsoli in 1557.
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There was also an interesting sculpture on the wall of the chapel just to the right of the door, and you can have a look at it here.
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We continued west to the Via d'Arrigo, where we turned south. There was a large rectangular government building on our left; one section of it housed the Comando Interregionale Carabinieri (provincial police). South of that large building there was a typical Messina street with what looked like residences or small offices. (We took a short detour up and down this street so Fred could add to his collection of doorknob pictures; we'll put those in a separate section at the end of our Messina walk.)
At the corner of Via d'Arrigo and Via Boccetta we were at the back of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi Immaculate, and we turned right again to walk west alongside it.
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The church was enlarged with a cloister in the sixteenth century, and then entered into a period of decline. It was damaged in the earthquake of 1783, and rebuilt in 1826. A fire in 1884 damaged the building and burned much of the artwork inside. It became a National Monument shortly thereafter, but was again ruined in the earthquake of 1908.
The church was entirely rebuilt between 1926 and 1928, using the surviving apse structures, the rose window, sixteenth-century portals and a mosaic of St. Francis. Inside, where the seventeenth-century statue of the Immaculate Conception with silver mantle is located, there is a restored portion of the original floor. Other elements have been moved to the Regional Museum of Messina. In the square in front of the church entry there is a bronze statue of the Patron Saint done by Bonfiglio in 1963.
We walked a block north from the front of the church of St. Francis and then jogged left on Via Giovanni Decolleto. We were looking for a way up the hill to get to the sanctuary of Maria Pompeii. We came to a side street that led a block north to a set of stairs leading up to the sanctuary, and so we turned up that street.
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From here, we could also get nice views looking southwest towards the Sacrario Cristo Re that we ended up visiting in a little while. Fred got a nice close-up of it that you can see here.
After taking these pictures, we went over to the stairway up to Via Regina Margherita and the Church of Maria di Pompeii.
Messina Walk Part 3:
From the Church of Maria Pompeii
to the Sacrario Cristo Re
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The church was quite nice on the outside, and had another large mosaic above the entry. Below are clickable thumbnails for some additional pictures of the outside of the church:
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We weren't sure if the church was open (though it seems as if most Catholic churches are, if not all the time then at least between first Mass and last) but it was, so we went in.
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We went back out and across the avenue for another look out over the city. Here is a good view of Sacario Cristo Re- our next destination. We continued walking from Maria di Pompeii along Via Regina Margherita, a street that led around the hillside and over to the next hill where Sacrario Cristo Re was located. Along the way, we snapped a number of interesting street scenes, and there are clickable thumbnails below for these pictures:
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Eventually, the avenue turned south and crossed a ravine that had the road leading to the expressway running up it. On the corner to the right, we passed a beautiful older building that was actually a hospital. On the other side of the shallow ravine we turned east on Via Principe Umberto, a street that sloped up to follow the hillside. It ran behind some nice apartment buildings, and at one point Greg and I took advantage of the park benches that lined the street to sit down and relax on the shady street.
As the street ascended, we could look back across the valley to some of the newer buildings on the opposite hillside, out to Madonna Stele in the harbor and generally out across the nearby apartments and other buildings. Towards the top of the street, we went through a huge stone archway; this archway was actually an entry through a medieval wall that used to surround this area. If you are following along on the aerial view, you can see the battlement walkway that crosses the top of the arch. Then it was around the corner to the front of the Sacrario Cristo Re.
This is the end of the first segment of our walk through Messina.
The Sacrario Cristo Re (Shrine of Christ the King)
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The Shrine of Christ the King (Sacrario Cristo Re) stands at the eastern end of the Boulevard Prince Umberto, on a point of land that is about 200 feet above sea level. The current building dates from the early 20th century; much, much earlier the castle of Rocca Matagrifone of Guelfonia stood on this spot. Designed by Giovan Battista Milani in 1937, the Shrine towers over the city of Messina, and from the viewpoint along Boulevard Prince Umberto, below and in front of the Shrine, there are commanding, panoramic views of the straits and the city. In order to show you this view, I went to the viewpoint and took a series of five pictures, looking from left to right as I faced the harbor, and have stitched them together to form the panorama below:
 The View from the Viewpoint Below and in Front of the Shrine of Christ the King |
The foundation of the earlier defensive structures was almost certainly coterminous with the founding of the city itself. The location on a dominating hill so close to the city center have made it a preferred control point for the city and harbor.
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Damaged when lightning set off a munitions depot in 1516, it was repaired and reinforced during the reign of Charles V. In the years of anti-Spanish revolution (1674-78), it was held by the Messinians who attempted an unsuccessful resistance. Severe damage was caused by massive bombings in 1718-20, and again in 1838, and in that year it was converted into a prison. The 1908 earthquake was almost totally destructive; all that remained was the polygonal tower, which was restored after the disaster (along with some other elements from the 16th century fortress). In 1937, the remains of the fortress became the Shrine of Christ the King.
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Atop the dome is a six-foot lantern, a ball and a cross. The octagonal tower contained a ten-foot bell that weighs over 130 tons, cast from melted-down enemy guns stolen during World War I. This bell was removed during the last renovation and placed on the large raised esplanade (about twenty feet above street level) just in front of the main entrance doors. The building now contains the remains of thousands of soldiers killed in World War I (the bell rings every night at sunset in their memory).
To get inside the Shrine, we crossed the boulevard to where the Shrine was towering above us and began to climb the stairs leading up to the balcony we could see above us, just outside the front doors to the Shrine itself. As the stairs turned to go up the final flight to the balcony, I took a picture of Fred and the stonework of the stairs; you can see that picture here.
The balcony area provided another wonderful place for expansive views of Messina. My effort was to take six pictures and stitch them together into the panorama below:
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Fred did another panorama using his camera to stitch three pictures together, and while the view is somewhat similar to the one above, I wanted to include it below:
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Fred also got a very good view of the Noordam docked in the harbor before we turned to go through the doors and into the Shrine.
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The shrine was very nice inside; we were just about the only folks there, although Greg did run into another couple from the ship that he had met before.
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As noted earlier, the shrine is the repository for the remains of thousands of Italian soldiers who were killed in World War I; these remains are symbolized by a carved marble casket that is on the floor below the main floor of the Shrine. I don't believe that visitors can routinely go down there, but on special occasions I suppose it is open. Visitors can, however, look down through a circular opening in the center of the Shrine; you can see the view looking down here. Fred took a close-up picture of the head and shoulders of the carved soldier on the top of the casket, and in the picture that you can see here, the World War I helmet is clearly visible.
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The views from this balcony were pretty amazing. We were right at the base of the dome, and so the view up at it was pretty neat. Even though the balcony was surrounded by a carved railing that was taller than we were, you could still stick your camera through to get some good pictures. I thought that the view looking down on the bell was very interesting, and Fred got a number of good views looking out over the city of Messina. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to view some of his pictures:
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Before we left the balcony, I also took a picture of a modern sculpture of Christ on the cross that stood on another platform at the front of the shrine looking out over Messina.
The guide had left us here on the balcony, and when we were done we just walked over to the little enclosure to the top of the spiral stairs.
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Fred had gone ahead of me down the stairs, and he took some still pictures as he descended. They show the stairway and the inside of the Shrine from a unique perspective, and you can have a look at two of the best of the pictures he took here and here.
We got back to the main floor and rejoined Greg to go back outside the Shrine. While we were descending the outside stairs back down to Boulevard Prince Umberto, I could see another walking destination ahead of us. It turned out to be the Church of the Madonna di Montalto, and based on the views of Messina we'd got from the overlook, would be right on a good path further around the hills and down to the Cathedral. So we continued to follow Boulevard Prince Umberto and off we went.
The Church of Madonna di Montalto
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It took many years of construction before the first church was built; today in the church can be seen some of the elements built or brought to the church during the 14th-16th centuries: a beautiful table of Byzantine workmanship that was brought by sea from the east around 1300 and the marble Madonna della Vittoria carved by Andrea Calamecca in the 16th century to commemorate the victory of Lepanto. This statue was moved to a spot above the facade (see Fred's close-up view here) in 1930. There are tales of other wonders and moving episodes, some of which are depicted in the five paintings that date from the early 1600s and which are still in the church.
Constance of Hauteville set the foundation stone of the original nucleus of the church in 1295, but the church was not substantially complete until almost 90 years later. From 1400 until the Confiscation in 1866, the church and the adjacent monastery were allocated to the Cistercian nuns. Much of the adornment of the church, including the wooden "Christ Crucified" (c. 1450), the beautiful seventeenth-century silver manta, and the sculpted effigies of the Madonna with Child and of St. Benedict were due to the generosity of the nuns.
The earthquake of 1783 caused the loss of frescoes by Filocamo; these were replaced in 1808 by those of Letterio Subba. Those, in turn, were ruined, along with much of the church, in the earthquake of 1908. The church we see today was the result of a reconstruction promoted by Archbishop D'Arrigo; it was completed about 1915 in a neo-eclectic style with a Romanesque‑Gothic influence.
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You can see the church on the aerial view map on which you have been following our progress, but I've also put a somewhat larger aerial view of Sanctuario della Madonna di Montalto at right; you can clearly see all the features of the church, including the cloister at the back (left), the transverse apse and nave design, the twin bell towers at the front of the church (right) and the esplanade and overlook.
First, we spent some time at the overlook just gazing out over the city of Messina. Although we'd seen these views before from Sacrario Cristo Re, these were a bit different, as we could see further to the south and east. Below are clickable thumbnails that you can use to see a few of the pictures we took from here:
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You can watch that movie with the player at left.
A Circuitous Walk Back to the Messina Cathedral
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We walked northeast along the avenue, and could see Madonna di Montalto back up the hill above us. We walked a ways until we could see the church of Saint Antonio Abate off to our right, at which point we turned east. There were some interesting street scenes along the way, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at some of them:
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We crossed Via Cavour, our route earlier this morning, and continued towards the harbor, turning south on Via Attio Casparra. This brought us around in front of the Commune di Messina, which is basically the Messina City Hall. There was a park in front of City Hall, and at its south end an interesting monument. I never did find out what the monument was to or for, but it did have some interesting carved friezes at its base. Fred took some pictures of them, and you can have a look here, here and here.
At the edge of the park at the front of the Commune, there was a small fountain, and at the south end of that same building another, prettier fountain that was surrounded by purple bougainvillea. It was approaching noontime, so we continued on south, eventually crossing our earlier morning path once again, and arrived in the plaza in front of the Messina Cathedral about eleven-thirty.
The Messina Cathedral
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Morning at the Messina Cathedral |
Noon at the Messina Cathedral |
So we arrived back in the same plaza of the Cathedral where we had first come this morning, but now the plaza was in full sunlight and crowded with people either using the church, awaiting the bell tower display or just enjoying the Sunday. There were three major elements to our visit to the Messina Cathedral- the Cathedral itself, the Orion Fountain and the Bell Tower.
The Cathedral
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The Cathedral boasts the largest pipe organ in Italy; it was completely restored during the Jubilee of 2000, which also saw a restoration of the mosaic on the triumphal arch and the bronze leaves on the major portal. The façade has three late Gothic portals, the central of which probably dates back to the early 15th century. The architrave is decorated with a sculpture of Christ among the Evangelists and various representations of men, animals and plants.
Although the front of the Cathedral was in shadow until well past noon, we did get some good pictures of the intricate architectural elements that adorn the facade. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to see some of these pictures:
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The interior is organised in a nave and two equally long aisles divided by files of 28 columns. Some decorative elements belong the original building, whereas the mosaics in the apse are reconstructions.
Tombs of illustrious men such as Conrad IV (the German ruler of Sicily in the 13th century), Archbishops Palmer (died in 1195), Guidotto de Abbiate (14th century) and Antonio La Legname (16th century) are also inside the Cathedral. You can see some more of these tombs here. Of special interest is the Chapel of the Sacrament (late 16th century) with its scenic decorations and 14th century mosaics.
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We also took other interesting photos inside the Messina Cathedral, and I have put clickable thumbnails for the best of these below:
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The Bell Tower
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It was tough to get far enough back from the tower to both get a picture that could show the details of the various movable displays and which could get the whole tower in one picture. The solution was to get fairly close to the tower and take a series of pictures from bottom to top and then stitch them together into a vertical panorama. Even so, displaying the whole panorama here just negated the benefits of the close-up views, so what I have done is to put a large panorama of the tower into a scrollable window, so that you can see the whole tower in great detail. That scrollable window is at left.
I went around to the east side of the tower where I could see the astronomical automata as well, and once again stitched a few pictures together into a panorama. The scrollable window for this panorama is below, right.
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The "performance" was pretty amazing, and there was quite a crowd gathered to watch it. I'm glad we came back to see it.
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The Fountain of Orion
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The 12‑sided larger basin, which has a diameter of nearly 25 feet, is set on a high carved pedestal and put beside four smaller basins topped by the personifications of the rivers Nile, Tiber, Ebro and Camaro (the latter one of which supplied Messina's entire water needs). Below each one of these personifications, the fountain has intricate carvings surrounding a basin. At the base of the fountain there are eight carved tigers; these are done in a darker stone than the rest of the fountain.
Unlike most of Messina's buildings, the fountain lasted through various earthquakes, although it was seriously damaged in 1908. Each time it was restored. The last major restoration effort, undertaken to clean and beautify the fountain, was in 1995.
Although we have seen larger, grander fountains (and would see larger and grander ones in the days ahead), this one was one of the oldest, and had more carved figures than most. Fred took a number of close-up pictures of the various carving elements that are part of the Fountain of Orion, and there are clickable thumbnails below for the best of these:
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When the performance at the bell tower was over, the crowd (many of them Noordam passengers) began to disperse and, with an hour or so until sailing, began to work their way back to the ship. We did, too.
We Return to the Noordam
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It is a magnificent expression of Byzantine-influenced Arab-Norman Sicily, and blends beautifully a number of styles including Byzantine, Roman, Arab, and Norman. An apse and transept are topped by a cylindrical dome; the arches and columns and narrow windows combine into a vivid harmony of geometries. The church is partially underground because the level of the surrounding roadways has changed due to the various earthquakes in Messina's history. This has made the inside of the chapel cool and a little dark and very pleasant.
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Leaving the church, we headed back to the Noordam, passing through a different passageway through the long line of buildings alongside the harbor. We encountered two interesting pieces of art on the way- one was a piece of glass etched with a human figure, and you can have a look at it here. And close to the Noordam, we ran across a very pretty stainless steel reflective sculpture. You can have a look at that one here.
We had to wait in line for a bit to get back on board, since so many folks had just returned from the Cathedral, but about twenty minutes before our scheduled departure, we were back on board after a very nice morning in Messina.
The Doorknobs of Messina
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The Noordam Leaves Messina
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I also tried my hand at doing another panoramic view of the harbor here at Messina; the result is in the scrollable window below:
It wasn't long before Messina was in our rearview mirror and we were headed to Rome via the island of Stromboli.
Passing the Stromboli Volcano
 Stromboli |
Above is a panoramic view of Stromboli constructed from four separate telephoto pictures of the island.
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There are three active craters at the peak. A significant geological feature of the volcano is the Sciara del Fuoco ("Stream of fire"), a big horseshoe-shaped depression generated in the last 13,000 years by several collapses on the northwestern side of the cone.
Mt. Stromboli has been in one almost continuous eruption for the past 2000 years. This pattern of eruption has been maintained, in which explosions occur at the summit craters with mild to moderate eruptions of incandescent volcanic bombs at intervals ranging from minutes to hours. This characteristic Strombolian eruption, as it is known, is also observed at other volcanoes worldwide. Eruptions from the summit craters typically result in a few second-lasting mild energetic bursts emitting ash, incandescent lava fragments and lithic blocks. Mt. Stromboli's activity is almost exclusively explosive, but lava flows do occur at times when volcanic activity is high; an effusive eruption in 2002 was its first in 17 years, although there were two more in 2003 and 2007.
The Noordam approached the island from the south, coming up from Messina, and we turned to pass around the southwestern point of the almost circular island. Fred took a series of good pictures of the islands as we came around that southwestern point and, as you can see if you use the clickable thumbnails below, we came around to where we had a good view of the caldera at the top of the peak. It is continually smoking, even in quiet periods- like now. It almost appears as if the smoke is just clouds that have formed above the peak.
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In the early 1900s a few thousand people inhabited the island, but after several emigrations the population had dwindled to its current level of about 700. The two villages San Bartolo and San Vincenzo lie in the northeast while the smaller village Ginostra lies in the southwest.
Going by Stromboli was interesting, and a little sad, for it would be the last item on our itinerary for this cruise. All that remains now is to steam overnight northeast to dock in Civitavecchia tomorrow morning. Tonight we would be packing and getting ready to depart the Noordam tomorrow and begin the third part of this amazing trip- stays in Florence and Rome.
We didn't take any new pictures when we docked in Civitavecchia, so the pages for this cruise end here.
You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.
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May 26, 2012: A Sea Day |
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Return to the Index for Our Mediterranean Cruise |
