bell tower and astronomical clock (orologio astronomico)

The piazza is beautiful, and the clock show is unusual with a sense of humour. Many tourists gather to enjoy the experience.

I have never seen something quite like this before. Make sure to be there 10 minutes before noon to be sure to catch the full show starting with the lions roar. It was the highlight of my trip in Messina. Don't miss it!

The bell tower was amazing to see it go at noon! The way it moved was amazing and the sounds the animals made!

this is the best known landmark in messina and is one of the largest astronomical clocks in the worldit strikes at 12 each day and there is always a crowd watching. the street peddlers can be annoying so dont hesitate to keep them firmly at bay.

For a few euros, you can visit this incredible clocks housed in the tower of Messina Cathedral. Marvel at the gilded figures that rotate on giant cog wheels and strike the hour. The clocks also chime on the quarter-hour. The phases of the Moon are displayed on the elaborate astronomical clock.

Even without all parts working, this was a nice little show. Great sound and characters. Funny little man up there though-maybe helping it work...

Watching the clock never gets old! Everytime we take the ferry to Sicily I always plan to visit. My son loved all the movement and music..

We happened to be there at noon to see the show. Having been thus fortunate, I can say that I would not have planned my day around this event. It is kind of a giant cuckoo clock, only with gilded lions that roar and roosters that crow. Fortunately, if you arrive at a time anywhere close to noon, you can fill in the time by checking out the interior of the Duomo that is attached to the clock. The interior is quite interesting with an interesting painted ceiling and mosaic work over the altar. The show lasts for maybe 15 minutes - 5 minutes is enough.

We enjoyed dinner looking onto the Bell Tower and Astronomical clock as the sun went down. A lovely end to a beautiful day before crossing the straights to the mainland.

This is one of the most beautiful tower in Europe, the astronomical clock is fabulous. An incredible machine that every day at noon takes life.The statues in the tower come alive to tell the story of the city.

On a hot August day we waited close to 30 minutes for the Bell Tower display at 12 noon; fortunately we found somewhere mostly shaded.Whilst you can probably see the tower display from anywhere in the square it is better to be directly in front of it because all the action takes place in the front.The clock display goes on for about 15 minutes and we found it pretty repetitive. What we did see was interesting, however had we known in advance what it was going to be we would have watched for maybe 5 minutes and then left.There are quite a few street stalls in the area to help pass the time.

Great attraction - if you can - find someone or some information that explains the different symbols of the clock- it will give you more context-

If you happen to be nearby at noon when things move around, I would probably stop to watch it for a few minutes. I would not plan anything around it though. As the one reviewer said, it is not always on time. For cruise ship passengers, you can see the tower but a building blocks the lower part.

When in Prague everyone gorse to watch the astronomical clock strike the hour, but I have to admit it was a rather disappointing experience. You stand around with a large crowd as the hands move ever close to the top of the hour. When the hour hand reaches 12, the skeleton on one side rings his bell and raises his lantern, then the hours are struck and the doors open and the apostles rotate through a little door. The striking stops, the door closes and that's it, that's all, it's over. The crowd actually started laughing at the underwhelming performance we had just witnessed. So definitely go and see the clock because it is beautiful and worth a photo, but if you feel you don't want to wait in a crowd for several minutes to see the "performance", don't feel that you are missing something spectacular, because it is really short and not all that great.

It was a must seen place in Messina. We were there on time as it would happen at 12:00. But......nothing happened. Suddenly, at 12:20 the lion and the cockerell were doing their trickes, but then it stopped. End of the show. Worst bell tower performance I ever saw.....