Fountain of Mela
Built in 1643 by the will of some senators who, under Philip IV, moved to the square the statue of Mercury, placed at the entrance of Porta Messina, as an ornament of a marble fountain carved with four lions. Rebuilt in 1762/63 after the war destructions, as documented by the inscriptions. In 1938 the fountain was removed by the mayor Salvatore Scala, to make way for a monument commemorating the naval battle between the Romans and Carthaginians in the waters of Milazzo, and the materials have undergone an almost total dispersion. In the eighteenth-century version, of not great quality, the fountain consisted of a polygonal tank with inscribed folders, inside which stood an artificial island surrounded by seahorses and eagles that served as the basis for the statue personifying the river Mela.
The nume was represented as a virile figure, sitting, in the act of holding an oar with the right hand while pouring water from a jar with the left. Some external basins to the main one allowed to draw water before a high protective railing was set up: one of those basins has been reused in the fountains of the cemetery and one of the eagles, very damaged, is in the pool of Piazza Battisti. In 1990, from the desire to re-establish a contact with the past of Milazzo, the current Fontana del Mela was created by the artist Ettore Giulio Resta.