Cathedral Astronomical Clock Bell Tower, Messina

The bell tower of the Cathedral of Messina contains the most significant and most complex mechanical and astronomical clock in the world. Designed by the firm Ungerer of Strasbourg, it was inaugurated in 1933 and is the city’s main attraction.
At noon a complex system of counterweights, leverages and gears determines the movement of the gilded bronze statues located in the façade. They are related to the civil and religious traditions of the city.
Along the Clock Tower staircase are the bronze statues and the complex and ingenious system of leverages and gears that generate the clock’s movement. At the top, you can appreciate a beautiful view over the city of Messina and its strait.
Every day at noon, the mechanism moves for 12 minutes. Every quarter-hour, the two heroines on the sides of the rooster, Dina and Clarenza, strike the quarters and the hours, and the carousel of ages moves.
Messina's sea legends
- Colapesce, a young fisherman from Messina who, at the bottom of the sea, holds one of the three columns of Sicily on his shoulder.
- Fata Morgana - related to an optical phenomenon typical of the Strait.
The Italian term Fata Morgana translates the name of the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay. It is believed that these mirages, often seen in the Strait of Messina, were fairy castles in the air or false land summoned up by her witchcraft to lure sailors to their deaths.
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- Scilla and Cariddi - the legend of two terrible sea monsters.
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-Sicily: the land of myths and legends
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From May to August, boats, felucas, go up and down the Strait to catch swordfish, sometimes 3 meters long. Messina's swordfish fishing is a very old art form, passed down from father to son.
Things to Do in Messina
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