Every day at noon, a show of gilded bronze figures on the cathedral bell tower
The bell tower of Messina Cathedral, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1908, houses one of the largest mechanical and astronomical clocks in the world, built in 1933 by the Strasbourg firm Ungerer. Its façade, about sixty metres high, is a sequence of gilded bronze automata telling stories of the city and of faith.
Every day at noon the show begins: a lion roars and waves a flag, a rooster crows, and on the various levels figures move in turn, the days of the week, the ages of life marching past Death, the Madonna receiving the ambassadors of Messina, and the two heroines of the city, Dina and Clarenza, ringing the bells, all to the music of Schubert's Ave Maria. The show lasts about twelve minutes. On the side facing the square, a planetarium and a perpetual calendar show the positions of the planets and the phases of the moon.
Tip: arrive a few minutes before noon to find a good spot in the square; inside the bell tower you can see the mechanisms up close and climb to the top.
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