Messina: its history

Messina (hagfish in Sicilian) is an Italian town of 234,570 inhabitants capital of the metropolitan city of the same name in Sicily, as well as thirteenth Italian municipality and third city not the capital of the most populous region of Italy.

It rises near the extreme northeastern tip of Sicily (Capo Peloro) on the Strict which bears its name. Its port, ferry port for the continent, is the first in Italy for the number of passengers in transit and tenth for cruise traffic.

First Sicilian Greek colony, founded with the name of Zancle and then Messana, Messina reached the height of its greatness between the late Middle Ages and the mid-seventeenth century, when it contended in Palermo for the role of Sicilian capital.

Set on fire in 1678 after a historic anti-Spanish revolt which led to the annihilation of its ruling class, it was seriously damaged by an earthquake in 1783. It was besieged in 1848, during the Sicilian revolution of 1848 against Ferdinand II of Bourbon, suffering severe damage. In 1908 a disastrous earthquake destroyed the city almost entirely, causing the death of about half of the population.

Rebuilt since 1912, the modern city has an orderly and regular mesh with wide, straight streets heading north-south.

Important and historical suniversity ede (the local Studiorum Universitas was founded in 1548 by Sant'Ignazio di Loyola).

Messina was originally founded by settlers and Chalcidesi in 757 BC (first Greek colony in Sicily) with the name of Zancle (from the Greek Ζὰγκλης, which takes up a Sicilian term meaning "sickle", because the San Raineri peninsula, the natural port of the city , looks like a scythe). It took the name of Messene when Anassilao of Reggio, around 491 BC, conquered it against the Milesii, the Samii, and the army of Hippocrates of Gela, and repopulated it with, among others, elements from Messenia. The Romans conquered it in 264 BC and in 241 BC renamed it Messana, after the victory in the First Punic War and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire it was first in the possession of the Byzantines who renamed it Messina, by the Arabs who conquered it in the '843 AD. In 1061 it was conquered by the Normans, with the help of Ruggero d'Altavilla.

Under the Swabian-Angevin-Aragonese dominions, Messina achieved great prosperity, becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily together with Palermo. The city, with its thriving port, was also linked to the Hanseatic League.

In 1674 he rebelled against Spain, in the repression that followed the city lost all form of autonomy, including the senate. It was hit by a serious earthquake in 1783. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy after the expedition of the Mille garibaldina in 1860.

In 1908 it suffered the destruction of another terrible earthquake and again the bombings of the Second World War. A significant page of the friendship between the city and the Russian people is linked to the tragic: the 1908 earthquake. The first rescuers who arrived in Messina were the sailors of the Russian imperial fleet, which was in the port of Augusta for exercises. The Messina earthquake it is considered one of the most catastrophic events of the twentieth century.

It occurred at 05:21 on December 28, 1908 and in 37 "very long" seconds it seriously damaged the cities of Messina. TO Messina, maggiormente sinistrata, rimasero sotto le macerie ricchi e poveri, autorità civili e militari. Nella nuvola di polvere che oscurò il cielo, sotto una pioggia torrenziale ed al buio, i sopravvissuti inebetiti dalla sventura e semivestiti non riuscirono a realizzare immediatamente l’accaduto. Alcuni si diressero verso il mare, altri rimasero nei pressi delle loro abitazioni nel generoso tentativo di portare soccorso a familiari ed amici. Qui furono colti dalle esplosioni e dagli incendi causati dal gas che si sprigionò dalle tubature interrotte. Tra voragini e montagne di macerie gli incendi si estesero, andarono in fiamme case, edifici e palazzi ubicati nella zona di via Cavour, via Cardines, via della Riviera, corso dei Mille, via Monastero Sant’Agostino. Ai danni provocati dalle scosse sismiche ed a quello degli incendi si aggiunsero quelli cagionati dal maremoto, di impressionante violenza, che si riversò sulle zone costiere di tutto lo Stretto di Messina con ondate devastanti stimate, a seconda delle località della costa orientale della Sicilia, da 6 m a 12 m di altezza. Lo tsunami in questo caso provocò molte vittime, fra i sopravvissuti che si erano ammassati sulla riva del mare, alla ricerca di un’ingannevole protezione. Improvvisamente le acque si ritirarono e dopo pochi minuti almeno tre grandi ondate aggiunsero al già tragico evento altra distruzione e morte. Onde gigantesche raggiunsero il litorale spazzando e schiantando quanto esistente. Nel suo ritirarsi la marea risucchiò barche, cadaveri e feriti. Molte persone, uscite incolumi da crolli ed incendi, trascinate al largo affogarono miseramente. Alcune navi alla fonda furono danneggiate, altre riuscirono a mantenere gli ormeggi entrando in collisione l’una con l’altra ma subendo danni limitati. Il villaggio del Faro a pochi chilometri da Messina andò quasi integralmente distrutto. La furia delle onde spazzò via le case situate nelle vicinanze della spiaggia anche in altre zone. Le località più duramente colpite furono Pellaro, Lazzaro e Gallico sulle coste calabresi; Briga e Paradiso, Sant’Alessio e le altre località fino a Riposto sulle coste siciliane. Gravissimo fu il numero delle vittime: Messina, che all’epoca contava circa 140.000 abitanti, ne perse circa 70.000.

Messina was one of the most important ports in the world. The minister Giuseppe Natoli brought Messina back to the glories of the past, as soon as he was elected deputy of Messina to the newly formed Sicilian Parliament he made the motion (March 31, 1848) to return to Messina the free port suppressed sixty years earlier by the Bourbons; the proposal was approved unanimously (from the history of Messina on the Gran Mirci portal).