All the monuments in Catania
The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.
EtnaUNESCOMount EtnaEurope's tallest active volcano, summit craters, the Etna cable car, lava slopes, Etna wine countryEtna rises more than 3,300 meters over eastern Sicily and rarely rests through a full season; UNESCO lists it for the sheer diversity and continuity of volcanic activity documented for at least half a million years. Most visits begin at Rifugio Sapienza on the south side, where the Funivia dell'Etna cable car climbs through fields of black lava to about 2,500 meters. From there, guides lead groups on foot or in modified four wheel drive Unimogs toward the still smoking Barbagallo craters formed in 2002. Lower down, the same volcanic soil that occasionally threatens villages feeds some of Sicily's most distinctive vineyards, where Nerello Mascalese roots dig into mineral rich ash. Craters, trails and access all shift with the mountain's mood, so it is worth checking conditions the morning you go.Plan the visit
Cattedrale di Sant'AgataCatania CathedralSaint Agatha's shrine, lava-and-limestone Baroque, Norman apses surviving quakes, Bellini's tombRoger I, the Norman count who took Sicily from its Muslim rulers, founded Catania's cathedral in 1078 over the ruins of a Roman bath complex, dedicating it to Saint Agatha, the city's third-century martyr and patron. An earthquake and fire gutted it in 1169, leaving only the apses and a strip of the transept, and the catastrophic 1693 quake that leveled much of eastern Sicily forced a near-total rebuild. What stands today is Gian Battista Vaccarini's 1711 Baroque facade in black lava and white limestone, the same volcanic stone Etna has supplied the city for centuries, fronting Norman apses that somehow survived it all. Composer Vincenzo Bellini is buried inside, and each February the cathedral becomes the epicenter of the Festa di Sant'Agata, one of the world's largest religious festivals.
Castello UrsinoUrsino CastleFrederick II castle, lava-stone walls, Biscari collection, civic museumEmperor Frederick II raised Castello Ursino in Catania between 1239 and 1250 as a royal stronghold on a sea cliff. In 1669 Etna’s lava filled the moat and pushed the coastline out, and the castle now stands well inland, in a square of its own. It survived the earthquake of 1693 that flattened most of Catania. Its square towers and thick walls of dark lava stone are austere, but inside the Museo Civico opened in 1934 holds the city’s inheritance: the Biscari collection of antiquities, Greek pottery, Roman marbles and coins, and paintings from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Come for the building as much as for the rooms, and for the courtyard.
Tours worth booking in Catania
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More within reach
Monuments a day trip away, elsewhere in Sicily.
StromboliUNESCOStromboliContinuous eruptions, the Sciara del Fuoco lava scar, night boat tours, licensed volcano guides
ModicaModicaTwo-level Baroque town, Duomo di San Giorgio's staircase, cold-worked Aztec-style chocolate
EriceEriceThe Norman Venus Castle, cloud-wrapped medieval lanes, the cable car from Trapani, almond pastries
LipariLipariThe walled acropolis, the Aeolian Archaeological Museum, white pumice beaches, black obsidian flows
Piazza ArmerinaUNESCOVilla Romana del Casale3,500 square meters of Roman mosaic, the "bikini girls" room, the Great Hunt corridor, mudslide preservation
CastelvetranoSelinunteTemple E and Temple G, acropolis over the dunes, Malophoros sanctuary, one of Europe's largest archaeological parks
AgrigentoValley of the TemplesTemple of Concordia, ridge of Doric temples, Temple of Olympian Zeus telamon, almond blossom season
Calatafimi-SegestaSegestaUnfinished Doric temple, hilltop theatre with gulf views, Elymian city, unfluted columns