Messina - Piazzetta dei Catalani

On the Piazzetta dei Catalani in Messina stands a bronze memorial by Andrea Calamecca to Don Juan of Austria, son of Emperor Charles V and Barbara Blomberg, the daughter of a citizen of Regensburg (because of which a copy of this memorial was placed by the Old Town Hall in Regensburg in 1977); Don Juan set off from Messina in 1571 to take part in the Battle of Lepanto, in which he defeated the Turks. The memorial was consecrated one year later in front of the Palazzo Reale.