Milazzo

About

Milazzo (Sicilian: Milazzu; Latin: Mylae; Ancient Greek: Μύλαι, romanized: Mýlai) is a municipality (comune) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy. It is the largest municipality in the Metropolitan City after Messina and Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. The town has a population of around 31,500 inhabitants. Founded by the ancient Greeks around 716 BC and part of Magna Graecia and recognised as a Roman civitas since 36 BC, the city was also at the centre of history during the First Punic War (260 BC), and in July 1860 with the arrival of the red shirts in the battle of Milazzo during the Expedition of the Thousand, an event of the unification of Italy.

Several civilizations settled in Milazzo and left signs of their presence from the Neolithic age. In Homer's Odyssey Milazzo is presumably the place where Ulysses is shipwrecked and meets Polyphemus.

Historically, the town originated as the ancient Greek Mylae ( Ancient Greek : Μύλαι ) in Magna Graecia, an outpost of Zancle, occupied before 648 BC, perhaps as early as 716 BC. It was taken by the Athenians in 426 BC. The people of Rhegium planted the exiles from Naxos and Catana in 395 BC as a counterpoise to Dionysius the Elder 's foundation of Tyndaris ; but Dionysius soon took it. In the bay Gaius Duilius won the first Roman naval victory over the Carthaginians (260 BC).

In 36 BC the naval Battle of Mylae was fought offshore. The fleet of Octavian, commanded by Marcus Agrippa, engaged that of Sextus Pompey. While the battle was nearly a draw, Sextus could not replace his losses, and was thus weaker at the following Battle of Naulochus (36 BC), where he was utterly defeated. It was recognised as a Roman civitas in the same year.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, under the Byzantines, the town became one of the first episcopal seats of Sicily. In the 9th century Milazzo was conquered by the Arabs, who built the first nucleus of the castle there. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen further fortified the town and created a personal hunting park. The castle was later mostly rebuilt in the age of Charles V of Spain.

Milazzo was also the seat of a battle in 1718 between Spain and Austria, and of another fought by Giuseppe Garibaldi against the Kingdom of Two Sicilies during his Expedition of the Thousand (1860), an event of the unification of Italy. The expedition was successful and concluded with a plebiscite that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the last territorial conquest before the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861.

Milazzo borders with the municipalities of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Merì and San Filippo del Mela.

Milazzo is the point of reference of a vast territory, from Villafranca Tirrena to Patti (over 200,000 inhabitants). It is also an important centre of the Strait of Messina Metropolitan Area (which also includes areas of Reggio Calabria ), with the nearby town Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. Located at the base of a peninsula that juts into the Tyrrhenian Sea with a small promontory, the town is 43 kilometres (27 mi) from the city of Messina.

The origins of the promontory can be traced back to 1.5 million years ago, when between the Tertiary and Quaternary tectonic movements led to a rise of sedimentary and crystalline rocks between 20 and 70 meters above sea level. Sand and marine sediments were deposited on them, during an interglacial period (430,000 years ago) which represents the Tyrrhenian plain. An island was then formed not far from the mainland. Subsequently, large quantities of debris and alluvial deposits from the Peloritani mountains joined it to Sicily.

The city stands at the beginning of a peninsula about 8 km long ( Capo Milazzo ) in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in a northerly direction. To the west of the Milazzo territory is the Riviera di Ponente, overlooking the Gulf of Patti ( Mar di Ponente ); to the east, the Gulf of Milazzo ( Mar di Levante ). The territory of the municipality, on the southern side, is characterized by a large alluvial plain ( Piana di Milazzo ). The municipal border on the mainland is demarcated to the east by the Floripotema river, which divides the municipality of Milazzo from that of San Filippo del Mela, and to the west by the Mela river (or Merì), which separates the municipality of Milazzo from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and Merì.

Milazzo has a Mediterranean climate with evident subtropical characteristics, characterized by very limited temperature variations throughout the year. According to the Köppen climate classification, the city is part of the Csa climate zone.

The annual rainfall in the area is approximately 850–900 mm. The months with the highest precipitation are January, February, November and December. In recent decades, there has been a gradual climate change, manifested by the increase in stormy phenomena, sometimes extreme, which have therefore highlighted a slow tropicalization of the area.

In the area in question, the predominant and constant winds, both weak and medium and strong, are the Ponente (coming from the West) and, with less frequency, the Sirocco (coming from the South-East). This situation occurs in all months of the year except for the summer months, during which the frequency of strong winds decreases. Strong and very strong winds (7th-12th on the Beaufort scale ) are concentrated in the autumn and winter periods even if they occur with lower frequencies than the weaker ones. As for the West, the Milazzo peninsula offers, on the port side, a good shelter, while for the Sirocco the bay (Mar di Levante) is uncovered. The opposite occurs for the opposite coast.

The area of Capo Milazzo is a marine protected area whose most famous attraction is the Piscina di Venere, a natural body of water on the extreme tip of the cape. Capo Milazzo is the cape with which the Gulf of Milazzo ends to the west and the Gulf of Patti begins.

At the end of the cape, a marine reserve of the promontory was established in 2019, called the Capo Milazzo marine protected area. Inside the promontory stands an imposing fortified citadel built starting from the Norman age and expanded several times over the centuries.

Located in the final part of the promontory, is the Sanctuary of Sant'Antonio da Padova, a real rock refuge, where the saint found shelter after being shipwrecked on that coast in January 1221 and then transformed into a place of worship. Nearby stands a military lighthouse, built in the 16th century and activated by the Civil Engineering Department in 1853 and made operational again since 2013.

- Castle of Milazzo was begun by the Arabs, enlarged by the Normans, restored and strengthened by Frederick II, it is surrounded by walls with round towers built under Alfonso V of Aragon, with a Gothic portal dating from the 14th century. Near the castle are the ruins of the fourteenth-century palace of the grand jury and the old cathedral (1603) probably built on a design by architect Camillo Camillians.

- the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is located inside the fortified city, and its construction began in 1608 based on designs by Camillo Camilliani, a student of Michelangelo. The cathedral was built to replace the old mother church of Santa Maria, demolished in 1568 for strategic-military reasons. The embellishment and completion works of the new work continued until around 1700.

- the Baroque Church of the Holy Crucifix (1629), housing a wooden canopy from the 18th century and a wooden crucifix from the early 17th century.

As of December 31, 2023, foreigners residents in the municipality were 1,125, i.e. 3.7% of the population. The largest groups are shown below: