Museum of the Cathedral of Messina

Inside the Sanctuary Basilica, the “Annibale Di Francia” Museum was created and inaugurated in the Holy Year 2000. Its uniqueness lies in the ½ scale reconstruction of the entire “Avignone Quarter,” just as Saint Annibale found it during his first encounter with the poor residents commonly called “mignuri.” 

The Museum, completed in two years based on designs by Architect Ing. Livio Lucà Trombetta, presents again the figure and work of the distinguished citizen from Messina. The exhibition route begins with the gaze directed at the pulpit, already in the Sanctuary and now placed here after the Sanctuary’s renovation was completed in 1976. 

 In the entrance corridor of the Museum, one can admire the drawings by Architect Antonio Favaloro who, as an eyewitness, faithfully reproduces the topography and structure of the quarter. Also on display is the precious 17th-century marble statue of Our Lady of Graces, signed by the Roman sculptor Vincenzo Tedeschi, which after the 1783 earthquake was moved from the Church of Santa Restituta to that of the Annunziata near the Zaèra stream.