Palazzo Reale di Messina (Palazzo dei Leoni)
Two stone lions flank the main staircase inside Palazzo dei Leoni, and they gave the building its name long before anyone bothered with the official one. The palace sits on Corso Cavour facing Piazza Antonello, its ground-floor portico curving to follow the plaza's arc — a small architectural courtesy that most people walk past without noticing.
Step inside and the scale shifts. The council chamber runs 220 square metres under a ten-metre ceiling, its walls finished in polished stucco, caryatids at the corners, painted panels by local artists above the tall windows. It is a working government building, so access depends on the day, but the exterior and portico reward a slow look.
💛 What travellers fall for
Those who come back tend to time it around Piazza Antonello itself — the palazzo's curved Piazza Antonello façade reads best from the far side of the square in the late afternoon, when the light catches the serliana windows on the second floor. The portico is a reliable place to step out of the midday heat.
The story behind Palazzo Reale di Messina (Palazzo dei Leoni)
The ground beneath the palazzo has held civic weight for centuries. A 16th-century Jesuit complex, the Casa Professa dei Gesuiti, stood here until the catastrophic earthquake of December 1908 levelled it along with most of Messina. The provincial council, needing a seat, commissioned architect Alessandro Giunta to design a replacement on the cleared site.
Giunta's response was an eclectic neoclassical building with deliberate Renaissance references — serliana windows, a formal portico, interiors decorated by craftsmen including D'Arrigo, Loverti, Corsini, Di Stefano and Bonsigno. The foundation stone went down on 1 March 1915; the palace was inaugurated on 21 July 1918, with the first provincial council session held inside that November.
Good to know
The building is the active seat of the Metropolitan City of Messina, so interior access is not guaranteed — check ahead or go during a public event. Entry is free. Piazza Antonello puts you a short walk from the Duomo and Fontana di Orione; fold the palazzo into a longer circuit of the centro.
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What travellers say about Palazzo Reale di Messina (Palazzo dei Leoni)
Walking down the road from Il Duomo is the Provincial Capitol of Messina. Another beautiful building to take photo of.
Palazzo dei Leoni is a majestic building that serves as the seat of the capital city of Messina. Constructed in neoclassical style after the devastating earthquake of 1908, the building symbolizes the city's rebirth.
In Piazza Antonello stands the Palazzo dei Leoni, the seat of the Regional Province, built on the site of the former Hospital of Santa Maria dell’Accomandata, dating back to 1460. The building is built around an elegant portico, a requirement that also applies to the three other buildings on the square: the Post Office, the Town Hall, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele III. The building is characterized by its vast 220-square-meter council chamber, rising 10 meters to a height, and by its exquisite "Hall of Mirrors."
Messina boasts a wealth of splendid palaces, and Palazzo dei Leoni is one of them. The entrance staircase is remarkable: it splits into two flights, one to the right and one to the left, in neoclassical style.
One of the most important buildings in Messina's reconstruction after the 1908 earthquake. A highly important institution, the most important elements of the project are the grand entrance staircase, which marks the interior of the main entrance on the Corso, and the Hall of Mirrors, which rotates with the quarter-circle of Piazza Antonello. The assembly hall is radically altered from its original layout. The decorations are tastefully understated, with appropriate references to the classical architectural orders.
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