For the next part of our tour, we went to the Piazza Duomo and saw the beautiful cathedral. At noon, the bell tower does a complex and beautiful series of sound and movement that lasts for almost 15 minutes. It was amazing! Then we went inside the cathedral and it is stunning.

Messina Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Messina; Basilica Cathedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta) is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Messina, Sicily. Formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Messina, it became in 1986 the archiepiscopal seat of the Archdiocese of Messina-Lipari-Santa Lucia del Mela. In June 1947 Pope Pius XII granted it the status of a minor basilica.

Built by the Normans, it was consecrated in 1197 by the Archbishop Berardo. Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Constance I of Sicily were present to witness the ceremony. The current building is the final result of some twentieth-century reconstructions, which took place following the disastrous earthquake that struck Messina in 1908 and the considerable damage that resulted from the heavy aerial bombardment in World War II. Only the perimeter walls, the Gothic portal and an apse remained standing after the catastrophic earthquake which also destroyed surrounding edifices in Piazza Duomo. In 1943 incendiary bombs fell on the restored roof destroying much of its interior. Only an original mosaic and statue survived.

The tower houses the Messina astronomical clock, the largest astronomical clock in the world. The astronomical clock of Messina is an astronomical clock constructed by the Ungerer Company of Strasbourg in 1933. It is built into the campanile of Messina Cathedral. The mechanism was designed by Frédéric Klinghammer, with the artistic design based on plans by Théodore Ungerer. Parts of the design are similar to the Strasbourg astronomical clock. The idea was to restore the ancient astronomical clock of the old medieval bell tower of the cathedral of Messina, destroyed in previous eras. It was commissioned by the Archbishop of Messina (Angelo Paino) to mark the reconstruction of the campanile after the 1908 Messina earthquake, perhaps on inspiration of Pope Pius XI, who gave him a functioning model of the Strasbourg clock. The clock's displays appear in several different levels of the campanile, on the sides facing the square and the cathedral.

We arrived a few minutes before the clock display played, so we got to see the whole thing before seeing the Basilica.

My previous post can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-803857-1.html, while the first post of this series (that includes a map of all of the places where we stopped) can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-801137-1.html

Next up: A few more photos of the cathedral and then sailing north to Crotone.