"Decoro e Comodo". Metamorfosi di una città. Messina 1783 - 1908

It was February the 5th 1783, when Messina and Reggio Calabria were devasted by an earthquake thet was ch’ange their history. The day after the disaster Messina gave the impression of a destroyed city although it was soon seen that the devastation had hit the even more calabrian territory.The timely Bourbon intervention and the commitment of the Senate of Messina allowed both the definition of recostrution plan of the cities to initiation meaningful economic reforms.
The viceroy Caracciolo in agreement with Minister Acton leading figures in the reconstruction of Messina promoted a policy of revival of the Sicilian cities throught incentivating economic activity.
The Governing Council of Naples entrusted the reconstruction plan of the city to the engineer Gianfrancesco Arena, helped by the mathematician Andrea Gallo, underlining to always key in mind the “décor and confort” of the city. The plan forsaw for mainteniment of the historic roads and, at the same time, the rationalization of part of the road system.
The urban plan was based primarily on respect of the existing city allowed for future seismic events. The most important changes of the plan were the rebuilding of seventeen century Palazzata together with the realization of rear Via Ferdinanda as an enlargement and extension of the old Via dei Mercadanti. The building works of Palazzata gave rise to a heated debate on how to carry out the reconstruction. That was only resolved in 1809 with the definition project signed by Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia, Francesco Sicuro, Giacomo Minutoli and Antonio Tardì. The neoclassic forms contruction recalled the old continuum port- building. The characteristic of nineteenth century architecture in fact used by many architects and ingeneers who changed the face of the city despite the original suggestion to keep to the old style.
Among the leading figures of the nineteenth century reconstruction, abbot Minutoli is listed among the most active professional of the time, having realized the Town Hall, directed most part of the yard construction work and having built many important private residential buildings. The city, which had also suffered the devastation of the uprisings of 1848 tried to recompose itself through of civil and monumental rebuilding.
In 1869 the first urban Master Plan was launched which forsaw urban expansion on the “Piano delle Moselle”.
The city reached the threshold of the XX century, reconstructed and reneweded, but unfortunately destined to be destroyed by another catastrophic event.