Hotels (inquiries should be made as to prices), all with the exception of the Excelsior built of wood and very fair. Gr.-Hôt. Regina Elena, Viale Roosevelt, to the E. of Viale San Martino, in an open situation commanding fine views, to be opened in 1911; Grand-Hôtel, R. 4½–5, B. 1¼ fr.; Excelsior, R. 4–10, B. 1½ fr.; Belvedere, R. 2½–3½ fr., these three in the Viale San Martino; Venezia, Piazza Cavallotti.
Cab per drive 60 (with luggage 80) c., at night 1 fr.; by time, 2 fr. for the first hour, and 1 fr. 50 c. for each addit. hour; to the Punta del Faro 6–7 fr.
Post Office, Viale San Martino.—Telegraph Office in the piazza of the chief station.
Tourist Agency. Mrs. Pearce, Via Primo Settembre, opposite the railway-station.
British Vice-Consul, J. B. Heynes.
The town of Messina was like Reggio completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1908 (comp. above) and has now only 80,000 inhab. as against 110,000 in 1908. Notwithstanding this catastrophe it was finally decided in autumn 1909 to rebuild the town on its former site. Its harbour, one of the best in the Mediterranean, the third in importance in Sicily, sustained no damage and has even now a very brisk trade (1908: 3589 vessels of 2,598,647 tons burden; 1910: 3148 vessels of 2,050,733 tons burden). The great charm of Messina consists in the beauty of its environs and the views they afford, particularly of the Calabrian coast by evening light.
Originally named Zancle (i.e. sickle), Messina was one of the earliest of the Greek colonies in Sicily, having been founded about 730 B.C. Early in the 5th cent. it was occupied by new colonists from the Messenian Reggio (p. [159]) and called Messana. From the earliest times the Messenians took a leading part in almost all the political agitations in the island. In 228 the Mamertines, disbanded mercenaries of Agathocles (p. [163]), treacherously seized the town and soon afterwards invoked the aid of the Romans against Hannibal, thus directly giving rise to the first Punic war. For a time Messina enjoyed the special favour of the Romans, and even of Verres, the notorious proconsul, but when it became the naval base of Pompey, in 36 B.C., it was plundered by the soldiers of Octavian. From the period of the Crusades, by which Sicily was partly affected, date the privileges which made Messina a kind of free city and the seat of the Sicilian opposition to foreign domination. The failure of its war against Spain (1672–8), notwithstanding the help of French troops sent by Louis XIV. and two naval victories won by Admiral Duquesne over the Spanish-Dutch fleet under De Ruyter (1676), caused the downfall of the city. Terrible pestilences (the plague in 1740 and cholera in 1854), severe earthquakes (in 1783 and 1894), and the bombardment of the town by the Neapolitan fleet (in 1818) had already seriously injured Messina prior to its recent appalling calamity.
The ruins extend along the shore to the N., from the ‘sickle’ of the harbour and the citadel, to the Giardino a Mare, under whose plane-trees is a Camp for the destitute. The Citadel itself, with its broad moats and its bastions, is still standing.
On the Marina or Corso Vittorio Emanuele (formerly called also La Palazzata) are still seen several palatial façades, interrupted by archways and passages leading to the parallel Via Garibaldi. These are mostly relics of a uniform row of palaces, erected after the earthquake of 1783. Opposite the ruined Palazzo Municipale rises the Neptune Fountain, by Montorsoli, a pupil of Michael Angelo (1557), with a colossal statue of Neptune between Scylla and Charybdis.
Beyond the Via Garibaldi lies the Piazza del Duomo, with the almost intact Orion Fountain by Montorsoli (1547–51), a point which may be reached direct from the Dogana by the Via Primo Settembre. The Cathedral (la Matrice), founded by the Normans in 1098, is now, with the exception of the choir niche, a mass of ruins. The short Via Università degli Studi led to the S.E. from this piazza to the University, now also destroyed.