Catania

Catania, city, eastern Sicily, Italy, in the broad plain of Catania on the Ionian seacoast, south of Mount Etna. The city was founded in 729 bce by Chalcidians (settlers from Chalcis in the Greek island of Euboea) from Naxos, 50 miles (80 km) north. It acquired importance in the 5th century bce with Hieron I, tyrant of Syracuse, and his son Deinomenes, who conquered it and renamed it Aetna after the volcano. The inhabitants restored the old name after driving out Deinomenes’ followers. One of the first Sicilian towns to fall to the Romans (263 bce), Catania was made a colony by Octavian (later the emperor Augustus). The Christians there suffered under the persecutions of the emperors Decius and Diocletian, and the Catanian martyrs included St. Agatha, patron saint of the city. After the barbarian invasions, Catania fell successively to the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Normans. It was hostile to the Swabian emperors and was sacked by Henry VI and Frederick II. The Aragonese sovereigns of the Kingdom of Sicily often resided there. During the 16th and 17th centuries the city was afflicted by civil disorders, pirate incursions, epidemics, famines, and natural disasters, including an eruption of Etna in 1669 and an earthquake in 1693. Later it became subject to the Bourbon kingdom of Naples. Civil disturbances occurring during an outbreak of cholera in 1837 were vigorously suppressed, and, when in 1848 Catania joined the other cities of the island in claiming autonomy for Sicily, this movement was also put down by force. In World War II the city suffered severe damage from bombing and heavy fighting in 1943.

Standing almost entirely on the lava left by various eruptions, the city slopes slightly downward from north to south. The use of volcanic tufa for building has given the older part of the city its prevailing dark-gray colour. Almost completely rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, the centre of the city has a distinctly 18th-century appearance. Ancient remains include the ruins of Greek and Roman theatres, and a Roman amphitheatre, basilica, baths, and aqueducts. The Ursino Castle with its four angular towers, constructed (1239–50) for Frederick II, long served as a model of military architecture. It now houses the civic museum with rich collections of art and archaeological relics.

The centre of modern civic life is the Duomo Piazza, surrounded by 18th-century palaces and opening onto wide streets. Of the original structure of the cathedral founded by the Norman count Roger I in 1091, three apses of dark lava and part of the transept remain. After the 1693 earthquake it was rebuilt by the architects Fra Fiolamo Palazotto and Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (1702–68). The cathedral contains relics of St. Agatha and the tomb of the composer Vincenzo Bellini, a native of Catania. The Church of San Nicolo (1693–1735), the largest in Sicily, is connected with the former Benedictine monastery of the same name; it was begun in the 14th century and completed in the 17th century. The university, the first in Sicily, was founded in 1434 by Alfonso of Aragon, and its library (1755) possesses a number of important medieval manuscripts. Other notable landmarks include the Baroque Church of Santa Agata, the town hall by Vaccarini, the elephant fountain (1736) in the Duomo Piazza, the Collegiata (or royal chapel), the astronomical observatory, and the birthplace of Vincenzo Bellini, now a museum.

Modern Catania, the second largest city in Sicily, is an industrial and transportation centre, connected by rail with Palermo, Messina, and Syracuse, with one of the busiest ports in Italy. Industries include a variety of mechanical and chemical manufactures, food processing, and fishing. About half of Sicily’s refined sulfur comes from the factories of Catania. The marketing centre for the surrounding agricultural region, it exports almonds and oranges, as well as handwork in metal, wood, and amber. It is also a popular winter resort with fine beaches nearby. Pop. (2004 est.) mun., 307,774.