Provincial capital
Location
Catania, situated on level ground halfway along Sicily's eastern coast, is a provincial capital and the second largest city on the island after Palermo. It is the seat of an archbishopric and of a university - the oldest in Sicily. With a cityscape
determined by its many Baroque buildings, both sacred and secular, with its many monuments from both ancient and more modern times, and not least its position on the Piana di Catania, a highly fertile plain between the volcano Mount Etna and the sea, Catania is an important and rewarding city to visit. In addition it is an important industrial and commercial city and port, the second largest in Sicily.
Beautiful beaches nearby and the opportunity to visit both Mount Etna and the many historical sites in Eastern Sicily add to the attractions of the city for the holidaymaker.
History
The town of Catane was founded by Ionian Greeks in 729 B.C. on the site of an earlier Sikel settlement. This was also the time of the founding of Zancle/Messina (also by Ionians) and was just a few years after the neighboring town of Syracuse was founded further south by Greeks of Dorian extraction. These first settlers of Catane had not come directly from their homeland of Chalcis but instead had founded the town of Naxos (below Taormina) in 735 B.C., from where they created both Catane and Leontinoi in 729.
Of the earliest period of the city's history, very little is known. The lawmaker Charondas lived here in the second half of the sixth century B.C. In the first half of the fifth century the town went through a dramatic period in its history. It was then under the jurisdiction of Syracuse, whose tyrant ruler, Hieron I, moved all the inhabitants forcibly to Leontinoi and populated Catane, which was now named Aitne (like the nearby volcano Etna), with 10,000 new settlers. These people were, however, in their turn driven out after Hieron's death in 466/465 B.C. and dispersed to Inessa on the southern slope of Mount Etna, which they named Aitne. The previous inhabitants returned to Catane. The town was then devastated by lava flows in 425 B.C. In 415 it was used by the Athenians as an operational base for their campaign against Syracuse. Following the failure of this venture Dionysios I of Syracuse conquered the town in 403 B.C., enslaved the inhabitants and replaced them with campaign mercenaries, who in turn though were transferred to Inessa/Aitne in 396.
However, in the ensuing period Catane prospered again thanks to the productiveness of its agriculture. In 278 B.C. it was one of the earliest Sicilian towns to give refuge to King Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 263 it was conquered by the Romans and thenceforth belonged as civitas decumana to the Roman province of Sicily. In 135 B.C. it sustained damage in the Slaves War, while in 123 B.C. it was ravaged by an eruption of Mount Etna. Augustus classified it as a Roman colony and during this colonial period Catane/Catania experienced another blossoming, of which the ruins of a number of buildings bear witness.
During the Byzantine period Catania was eclipsed by Syracuse and in the Arab period by Palermo. However, in the 12th century it regained some of its importance, developing into a trading and seafaring power under Norman rule. There was a hiatus in its growth caused by the earthquake of 1169 (15,000 dead) and the destruction at the hands of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI in 1194. Spanish rulers from the House of Aragon, however, fostered the town's prosperity, founding a university there in 1434. Later on further natural catastrophes were to befall the town: in 1576 the majority of the population fell victim to the plague and in 1669 the western part of the town was destroyed by lava flows, whilst the rest was ruined by the great earthquake of 1693.
In the 18th century Catania's splendid reconstruction took place, including parts designed by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, who was also responsible for several buildings (Sant'Agata, the cathedral facade, San Giuliano, the university) and the famous elephant fountain. The result was a city with axes formed by wide main roads, interspersed with large rectangular squares. Owing to the predominant lava stone, which has frequently been employed as a building material, the overall impression of the city is perhaps more somber than that of Messina. Nevertheless, those who in 1768 erected the triumphal arch in the west of the city (Porta Ferdinandea, today Porta Garibaldi) could justifiably inscribe it with the motto: "Melior de cinere surgo" ("I rise thriving from the ashes").
In the 19th century Catania took its full part in the movement of the Risorgimento. In the Second World War it suffered substantial bomb damage. The effects of this have been largely eliminated and in the last few decades an enormous amount of building, particularly in the outer suburbs, as well as programs of modernization and the development of an industrial zone, have considerably altered the city's appearance.
Topography
The two axes which since the reconstruction of the city in the 18th century have formed the city's essential framework, are the Via Etnea, running north-south and the Via Vittorio Emanuele, running east-west, which meet at the Piazza del Duomo. The oldest Greek settlement can be shown by pottery finds to have existed to the northwest of this junction, on a hill at the Piazza Dante, which for a long time served as the site of a castle, but is nowadays occupied by the large Benedictine monastery of San Nicoló. In the Roman era the city spread out eastwards and southwards into the plain and this is where the monumental buildings of this period are to be found (theater, odeon, amphitheater, hot springs). In the north the ancient city probably extended to the Via Plebiscito, and in the east as far as the Via Etnea. In the Middle Ages the center of the city shifted southeastwards to the area around the present-day cathedral square, where in Norman times the cathedral was constructed. For the Castell Ursino Frederick II chose a site to the southwest of the center, directly by the sea (this changed when in 1669 a flow of lava reached the castle and caused the coastline to move outwards).
The cathedral square is today still the center of the city, and still preserves the Baroque appearance which was conferred on it during the 18th century. Around the elephant fountain on the east side are the cathedral, altered in the Baroque style, and the church dedicated to the city's patron saint, Sant'Agata; in the northwest is the Palazzo del Municipio and in the south the Porta Uzeda. To the north of the cathedral square, on either side of the Via Etnea, lies the heart of the Baroque area, with its broad streets and well-defined squares.
Communications
SS 114 and A 18m (Messina-Siracusa), starting-point of the SS 114 (Orientale Sicula), SS 121 (Catanese, to Adrano), SS 192 (Valle del Dittaino, to Enna), SS 417 (Gela) and the A 19 (Palermo). Railway station, direct lines to Palermo, Syracuse, Messina, Rome, Milan; starting-point of the Etna Circular Railway (Circumetnea). Ship connections with Sicilian and Italian ports; hydrofoil services to Taormina, Messina, the Aeolian Islands and Ostica (summer). Fontanarossa Airport (5km/3mi to the south) with direct flights to Rome, Milan, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Malta and Tripoli.
Cultural events
Sant'Agata Festival ("Candelore" procession, February); commemoration of the transfer of the relics of Sant'Agata from Constantinople to Catania (August); opera, concert and theater season (October-December).
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