Messina.
The ancient name of the city , Zancle, a Greek word
meaning "sickle", reflects the unusual curved
shape of the harbour which since anTiquity has made
it a safe landing- pIace. In pre-Greek times it was
in- habited by autochthonous people, possibly Sicels.
In the 8th c. BC Ionians and Chalcidians founded the
first urban nucleus between the San Ranieri penin"
sula and the harbour zone. The town began to grow,
favoured by trade and port traffic. After the 5th
c. BC, as a result of intema1 conflicts, it was destined
to altemating vicissitudes. Messenian populations
changed its hame to Messina. After a period of Carthaginian
domination ( 426 BC), the city achieved its freedom
and formed an alliance with Syracuse but, having been
recaptured by the Carthagini- ans, it was destroyed
by Himilkon in 396 BC. The new city, rebuilt in the
Hellenistic period by Dionysius I of Syracuse, fell
once again to the Carthaginians, from whom it was
liberated by Timoleon. In 289 the city was occupied
by a group of mercenaries from Campania who had been
expelled from Syracuse, the Mamertines. When these
were on the point ofbeing overcome by the Syracusans
and the Carthaginians, they asked Rome for help in
264 BC, the year the First Punic War broke out. Having
passed under Roman control in 263 BC, Messina became
a federate city. It continued to prosper until the
fall of the Western Roman Empire (AD 476). After the
dark period of the Barbarian invasions, Messina retumed
to splendour in the Byzantine Age, when the trading
acti vities of the port were revived. In 843 it was
overcome by the Muslim invaders and the inhabitants
fled in mass to Rometta, and organized their resistance.
They capitulated only in 965, when they retumed to
the city and reorganized its layout and social and
economic life. In the Norman period Messina became
one of the most important centres in Sicily. The royal
palace was built, the arsenal began to operate and
the city defences were strengthened by the extension
of the boundary walls along the entire coast. The
building fever continued in the successive Swabian
Age, with further developments in town-planning and
new development northwards. After the Angevin age
and the War of the Sicilian Vespers, in which Messina
immediately played an active part and fought strenuously
against the oppressor, a new social and economic order
was imposed by Frederick of Aragon, and a new city
layout was planned. In the 14th and 15th c., a new
entrepreneurial bourgeois class began to develop,
devoted particularly to the silk, leather and wool
trade. In the 15th c., and even more so in the 16th
c., the considerable economic development was accompanied
by the opening-up of new roads and squares and the
creation of new areas of expansion. The anti-Spanish
revolt in 1674- 78, which was suppressed with great
violence, put an end to the idea of making Messina
the capital of the vice-royalty of Sicily. The repression
of the revolt, the exile of many families, the burden
of new taxes and repeated epidemics caused the impoverishment
of the city. The earth- quake in 1783 was the final
blow. The process of reconstruction was very slow,
partly bacause of contin uous political conflicts
and changes in the regime. In the 19th c. Messina
was a declining city. The achievement of the Unification
of Italy, with the sharp gap between north and south,
made the situation even worse. A sign of reviva1,
at least of the port activities, was the institution
of a regular ferry service to Calabria, which continues
even today. On 28 December 1908 another violent earthquake
almost completely destroyed Messina, killing about
60,000 persons. The lengthy and laborious prograrnme
of reconstruction aimed at the creation of a city
with a modem grid layout, the protection and restoration
of the architectural and artistic testimonies that
had survived the earthquake and above all at guaranteeing
the antiseisrnic qua1ities of the new buildings. Between
the 1930s and the 1950s buildings were constructed
along the harbour front which, unlike the uninterrupted
stretch of houses that had stood there previously,
now consisted of individuai constructions which reflected
the lively artistic and architectural trends of the
period. The chaotic expansion of recent years has
particularly affected the S and N areas, giving rise
to extensive suburban zones.
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