Messina

The harbor let in disaster as well. In 1347 Genoese galleys fleeing Kaffa brought the plague into Messina, and the city became one of the first places in western Europe to meet the Black Death. Under Spanish rule it rose again as a base for Christian fleets: in 1548 Ignatius of Loyola founded the world's first Jesuit college here, the seed of its university, and in 1571 the fleet that won at Lepanto sailed from its harbor, bringing back wounded men such as Miguel de Cervantes to recover in the city's Grand Hospital. By the early 17th century Messina counted among the ten greatest cities of Europe.

That standing proved its undoing. In 1674 the city rebelled against its Spanish garrison and, with the help of Louis XIV, held out on its own for four years. When the French withdrew and the Peace of Nijmegen of 1678 returned Messina to Spain, it was sacked, its university and senate were abolished along with privileges it had held since Roman times, and the Spanish built a massive fortress to hold it down. Plague returned in 1743 and killed 48,000, and the earthquake of 5 February 1783 wrecked much of what remained, so that the town needed decades to rebuild.