The city is situated on the eastern coast of the Straits of Messina and on the west side of the Aspromonte. It was found in 743 b. C. and during the Vth and IVth centuries covers over 70 ha. of the Calabrian territory. Under Anassila rule it was politically united to Zancle (Messina). In 387 b. C. Dioniso I. , who had occupied the city after a revolt, destroyed it and deported its population to Siracusa. In 270 b. C. the place became a Roman community with the name of Rhegium Iulium. In the following years the city suffered innumerable devastations through the Saracen.

The tourist could be mistaken about its origins cause of its modern look. Numerous palaces have been built with eclectic forms and so with classic, baroque elements and even medioeval ones.
Two earthquakes of 1783 and of 1908 destroyed the beautiful Byzantine churches and those of the baroques Age. However, ruins of the Greek and the Roman time came to light thanks the last excavations: numerous important collections, preserved in the National Museum; remains of the city-wall (IV century); a theatre probably of the IIIrd century; remains of Roman baths with interesting mosaic paving. Only a few rests of the Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance time can be admired: valuable churches in the city and the Basilian Abbey of S. Maria di Terreti were destroyed by the 1908 earthquake, of this last one, remains of the mosaic paving are in the Curch of Ottimati (it originally was a beautiful Byzantine building) together with antique columns.

A wonderful building is the medieval castle rebuilt under the Aragona rule during the XVth century and the pseudo-Romanesque cathedral with three aisles, that still preserves an antique column of Saint Paul (it was here that he landed and from here he made his way up to the penisula for his first work of evangelisation), the two teresting tombs of Matteo di Januario and Annibale degli Aflitti (1663) in Reinassance style. Interesting is the big chapel of the Sacramento, completly restored after the earthquake. The city is excellently connected with other large centres in Italy by rail and air. Services to Messina are very frequent by ferry and hydrofoil, which also offer pleasant excursions to Taormina and the Aeolian islands. The National Museum, situated in the city centre, that was built according Marcello Piacentini project.

Paolo Orsi began the works of the Museum, whose opening was in 1954. It preserves: prehistoric and archaeological collections (findings from Locri and from other centres of the Magna Greacia, Roman works, etc.); medieval and modern paintings; coins collections; the Dioscuri from the tempel of Marasà; a cup with gold ornaments from Treselico; the Apollo Alaios head from Punta D’Alice by Cirò; the ancient marble “Crimissa” (470 b. C.).

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