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Messina in Sicilia - The Port

The port in the Strait of Messina is physically shaped, by the San Ranieri Peninsula, which has the shape of a sickle, and so was given the original name 'Zancle' by the greeks in 8BC. On its extreme point, we can find Fort Campana, ordered by Carlo V and constructed in 1546. It was used to close the efficent defence walls located along the arc of the port in order to reject the Turkish army.

In order to be built, it was necessary to destroy one of the first Christian convents that gave hospitality to basilic monks and which was dedicated to San Salvatore. Then this name remained to indicate the extreme part of the peninsula, were during the XVIIth century enlarging Fort Campana , other new fortresses were created. On the Spanish door of Fort San Salvatore under a huge Coat-of-arms of King Filippo III of Spain , there is a tombstone of 1614 , in memory of the battles.

On the antique tower, now used, as the rest of the extreme part of the peninsula, for the military services, was raised a column with an octagonal section, on which is placed the Golden Bronze Statue of the Blessing Madonna. The column is 60 m high, the statue 6 m, modelled by the sculptor Tore Calabrò, is the enlarged reproduction of the little silver statue designed by the Messenese sculptor, Lio Gangeri in 1867 and fused by the engraver Roman Pietro Calvi, who adornes the "Vara" of the Madonna, which is brought solemnly in procession every 3rd July of the year.

On the fort's wall, covering the holes left by the canons, there is a writing in huge letters: "Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus", it is the phrase that is included in the book " Sacred Letter". Tradition that says that it was given by the Madonna to an embassy from Messina, guided by San Paolo (St.Paul), that arrived there to adore her fervently. The column, the inscription, the Madonna's Aureola, were illuminated for the first time in 1934 by a device with a radio remote control constructed by G. Marconi and was started by the Pope Pio XI from his Vatican Palace. In the center of the peninsula, on the greatest part of the pier that advances on the Straits, the "Tower" of Lantern of San Raineri was built.

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