Guided tour of the church of Annunziata dei Catalani

The Church SS. Annunziata of Catalans was built in Norman times, between 1150 and 1200, on the ruins of the ancient temple of Neptune and probably of a later Arab mosque. Restored in the Aragonese era it was elevated to the rank of the royal chapel. In the last years of the 15th century the Catalan nation, who came to Messina in the wake of Peter III of Aragon, asked the Spanish crown to use the church. Since then it has been known under the current title of SS. Annunziata of Catalans. The earthquake of 28 December 1908 saved it by collapsing all the superfetations of the Baroque era and the factory bodies attached to the outside of the apsidal sector, bringing to light the primitive architectural structures that testify among other things the succession of the dominations that have occurred in the city over the centuries. Today the church is on a lower street level because, after the 1908 earthquake, the modern city was rebuilt on the rubble caused by the cataclysm.