The former citrus chamber in neglect: "A museum should be created"

A yellow building emerged from anonymity with the opening of the connector of Viale Europa with the new Via Don Blasco.

Closed since 1950, the former Citrus Chamber of Messina is now just a vague and faded memory for many.

Yet it still tells the glories of a Messina that no longer exists, the story of a city that, around the time of the 1908 earthquake, was capable of attracting investments from a wealthy bourgeoisie, including foreigners, who made citrus trade and essential oil extraction their main source of wealth.

Today, however, there are those who, in line with the planning already conceived for the area of the former Sanderson, aim to recover that piece of history and turn it into a museum hub, perhaps returning the vast archival heritage that was preserved in those premises until the closure to its original location.

17 envelopes with chronological dates from 1908 to 1950, currently preserved among the documents of the State Archive, which has also been relocated, amid numerous complaints, to Riposto.

“The Citrus Chamber - explains Ivan Tornesi from the Civic Laboratory Progettiamo Messina, which is working on a proposal for various public spaces throughout the area from the city center to Giampilieri - is a historical treasure in plain sight, but no one values it. The building represents the symbol of a productive past of the city that no longer exists, a crucial point where over a hundred industries and factories for the processing and transformation of citrus converged. The idea - continues Tornesi - is to start a process of involving the community, starting with the residents of the area, to develop a proposal for the regeneration of that space, which could also become a museum.”