Messina (, ) was a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the autonomous island region of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the

Metropolitan City of Messina The Metropolitan City of Messina ( it, Città metropolitana di Messina) is a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in Sicily, Italy. Its capital is the city of Messina. It replaced the Province of Messina and comprises the city of Messin ...

Geography

Territory

It had an area of , which amounts to 12.6 percent of total area of the island, and a total population of more 650,000. There are 108 ''

comuni The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (singular: ''comune'') in the provinc

see Comuni of the Province of Messina. The province included the Aeolian Islands, all part of the comune of

Lipari Lipari (; scn, Lìpari) is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, southern Italy; it is also the name of the island's main town and ''comune'', which is administratively part of the Metropo ...

(with the exception of Salina). The territory is largely mountainous, with the exception of alluvial plain at the mouths of the various rivers. The largest plain is that in the area between Milazzo and

Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (; Sicilian: ''Baccialona Pizzaottu'') is a town and '' comune'' of about 50,000 inhabitants in the north coast of Sicily, Italy, from Messina towards Palermo. It belongs to the Metropolitan City of Messina. Hi ...

, which, together with Messina, form a metropolitan area of some 500,000 inhabitants, one of the largest in southern Italy. Much of the population is concentrated in the coastal area, after the hill towns have been largely abandoned from the 19th century. The main mountain ridges are the

Peloritani The Peloritani ( Sicilian: , it, Monti Peloritani) are a mountain range of north-eastern Sicily, in southern Italy, extending for some from Capo Peloro to the Nebrodi Mountains. On the north and east they are bordered by the Tyrrhenian ...

, up to in elevation, and the

Nebrodi The Nebrodi ( scn, Munti Nèbbrudi; it, Monti Nebrodi, ; la, Nebrōdēs montēs) is a mountain range that runs along the north east of Sicily. Together with the Madonie and the Peloritani, they form the Sicilian Apennines. The mountains run ...

, up to , which are included in a Regional Natural Reserve. Rivers of the province include the Alcantara and the Pollina, which forms the border with the

province of Palermo The Province of Palermo ( it, provincia di Palermo; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced ...

to the west. Isola Bella Island Sicily

Panorama Laghetti di Marinello e Tindari

Main communes

The main comunes by population are:

Religious Feasts and tradition

References

External links