In the square know as Pope John XXIII, also called “Immacolata di Marmo,” next to the entrance to the Cathedral of Messina, it is possible to admire a white marble statue made in 1758 by Ignazio Buceti and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. 

The imposing work has a very high base and is decorated by epigraphs in the lower part, and in the upper part, by four angels. The Virgin rises up from the base. 

In 1647 the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by the Senate as the “Special Patron of the City,” after the Virgin was declared the main patron of Sicily in 1643 by the Spanish viceroy Almirante Castella. 

According to different sources, the statue was commissioned to thank the Virgin who had intervened during the celebration of the Vara in 1738 by saving the children who had fallen off the Vara, which is represented on the statue by six of the higher characters of the votive structure typical of Messina. An inscription on the base proclaims the Senate’s devotion to the Virgin.