Regional museum of Messina

The Museo Interdisciplinare Regionale (MuMe), commonly known as the Regional Museum of Messina, is an art museum situated on the northern coast of Messina, Sicily, Italy. It traces its origins to 1806, when it was founded as the Museo Civico Peloritano to safeguard artistic heritage from despoliation. Today, MuMe charts the development of art and culture in Messina from the 12th to the 18th centuries, with particular distinction in works by Andrea della Robbia, Antonello da Messina, Girolamo Alibrandi, Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), and Polidoro da Caravaggio. The museum relocated in 2017 from its long-time home in a former late-19th-century silk mill to a purpose-built adjacent complex designed in the 1970s.

The museum's first nucleus emerged from private collections assembled with conservative intent. Carmelo La Farina, a member of the Reale Accademia Peloritana, initiated its establishment as the Museo Civico Peloritano in 1806, serving as its first director. The founding collections included those of the Alojsio, Arenaprimo, Ciancialo, Grosso-Cacopardo, and Carmisino families, alongside a collection of 14th- to 18th-century paintings owned by the city's senate, which also contributed to operational costs. Initially housed on via Rovere near the Archivio degli atti notarili, the museum moved through several locations: former university buildings, then in 1884 to via Peculio Frumentario after substantial expansion through the incorporation of ecclesiastical assets from religious corporations suppressed under 1866 liquidation laws, and from 1891 to 1908 to the former monastery of San Gregorio. In 1890, a municipal commission including Arenaprimo and future director Antonio Picciotto drafted criteria for more systematic organization, emphasizing comprehensive representation of the Messina school across periods of splendor and decadence. The devastating 1908 Messina earthquake collapsed the monastery building and caused significant losses, though major works were saved while others were placed in temporary shelters. Rapid reconstruction was prioritized, with the civic museum ranked fifth in a 1909 interministerial commission list of public works. The new museum was established in 1914 at Viale della Libertà, 465, in the former Barbera-Mellinghoff spinning mill, and finally opened in 1922. It was designated as the Regional Museum of Messina in 1976. Designs for a new adjacent building were presented in the 1980s; this complex was completed in the 2010s, and the museum gradually relocated between 2016 and 2017. The old mill building continues to be used for special exhibitions. In late November 2023, the permanent exhibition "1908 CittàMuseoCittà" opened, examining Messina before and after the 1908 earthquake.

The original collections derived from the Museo Civico, substantially expanded after the 1908 earthquake through the addition of paintings, sculptures, and precious decorative works salvaged from damaged or destroyed buildings throughout Messina. The museum was organized on historicistic principles, with each area containing the most important works of the same period regardless of typological class. This approach, established by the 1890 municipal commission, sought to represent the Messina school in its entirety, including not only masterpieces but also mediocre works and periods of decline, for reasons of both art and history. The collections encompass Norman-Swabian material, 15th- and 16th-century sculpture and painting, 16th-century paintings, sculptures, funerary monuments and decorative arts, 17th-century art and culture with particular attention to Caravaggio, 18th-century art and culture in Messina, and a treasury section featuring silversmithing, cribs, church ornaments, and pottery.

The museum's most celebrated work is Antonello da Messina's Saint Gregory Polyptych, a five-panel altarpiece created for the Chiesa di San Gregorio designed by Andrea Calamech. The central panel depicts the Madonna del Rosario, flanked by Saint Gregory and Saint Benedict; a three-part upper section originally included the Annunciation, though the central panel of this upper section was lost in the 1908 earthquake. Room 6 houses Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli's "Scylla," originally created for the Neptune Fountain of 1557. Girolamo Alibrandi, called "Il Raffaello da Messina," is represented by his major work "Presentazione di Gesù al Tempio" (1519), painted for the Compagnia della Candelora, an oil on panel measuring 99 × 118 cm, along with a painting of Saint Peter. Alibrandi's training included direct study with Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and friendship with Raphael in Rome. Other significant works include a Madonna and Child by Francesco Laurana from Sant'Agostino, a Madonna and Child by Antonello Gagini from San Francesco d'Assisi, a Deposition by the Flemish painter Colijn de Coter who worked in Messina in the second half of the 15th century, and a painting by Herri met de Bles. The 17th-century rooms particularly feature works by Caravaggio.

From 1914 until 2017, the museum occupied the former Barbera-Mellinghoff spinning mill, a late-19th-century industrial building selected after the 1908 earthquake to house the reconstructed museum. This building underwent considerable restructuring over the decades to improve preservation conditions for the collections, with major works carried out in the 1980s. Since 2017, the permanent collections have been displayed in a new large complex of buildings adjacent to the former mill, designed in the 1970s and completed in the 2010s. The old silk mill building has been retained for special exhibitions.

The Regional Museum of Messina is located on the northern coast of Messina, Sicily, Italy, with its current entrance in the complex inaugurated in 2017 near the former Barbera-Mellinghoff silk mill site at Viale della Libertà. The museum operates as a public institution, accessible through its website at https://museo.messina.it. Its present role combines the display of permanent collections tracing Messinese art from the 12th through 18th centuries with special exhibitions, including the 2023 permanent exhibition "1908 CittàMuseoCittà" dedicated to the earthquake that reshaped the city and its cultural institutions.