The station, originally named simply as Messina, was inaugurated on 12 December 1866, as the terminal of the railway to Taormina, the first section of the Messina-Catania-Siracusa line. Heavily damaged after the 1908 earthquake, it was repaired a few years later. In 1939 it was finally renewed and replaced by the modern "Messina Centrale", with the station building projected by the architect Angiolo Mazzoni.