SICILY'S HALL OF FAME

Empedocles (c. 490 BC – 430 BC), scientist and philosopher
Gorgias (c. 483 BC – 375 BC), philosopher
Timaeus (c. 345 BC – 250 BC), historian
Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – 212 BC), scientist
Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 BC – 30 BC), historian
Pope Leo II, Pope from 682 to 683
Roger II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1130 – 1154
William I of Sicily, King of Sicily 1154 – 1166
William II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1166 – 1189
Frederick II (1194 – 1250), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily (Frederick I of Sicily)
Cielo d'Alcamo (c. 1200 – 1250), poet
Giacomo da Lentini (1210 – 1260), poet
Guido Delle Colonne (1215 – 1290), poet
Antonello da Messina (1430 – 1479), painter
Antonello Gagini (1478 – 1536), sculptor
Francesco Maurolico (1494 – 1575), mathematician
Sigismondo D'India (1582 – 1629), composer
Pietro Novelli (1603 – 1647), painter
Giacomo Serpotta (1656 – 1732), sculptor
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725), composer
Filippo Juvarra (1678 – 1736), architect
Giovanni Meli (1740 – 1815), poet
Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), opera composer
Francesco Crispi (1819 – 1901), politician
Emanuele Realmuto (1830 – 1857), Prince
Giovanni Verga (1840 – 1922), novelist
Giuseppe Sergi (1841 – 1936), anthropologist
Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936), dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nino Martoglio (1870 – 1921), poet
Luigi Sturzo (1871 – 1959), politician
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896 – 1957), writer, poet
Julius Evola (1898 – 1974), political philosopher
Ignazio Buttitta (1899 – 1997), poet
Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968), poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Andrea Camilleri (born 1925), novelist
Nino Vaccarella (born 1933), race driver
Giovanni Falcone (1939 – 1992), judge
Paolo Borsellino (1940 – 1992), judge
Giuseppe Tornatore (born 1956), filmmaker
Anna Kanakis (born 1962), model, actress
Salvatore Schillaci (born 1964), football player
Franco Battiato (born) , singer
Maria Grazia Cucinotta (born 1969), actress

ART OF SICILY

Imposing architectural remains of temples, theatres and aqueducts which still rise majestically on the sites of great ancient cities, as well as the large numbers of fine sculptures, decorative features of ancient buildings, pottery and precious items displayed in the main archaeological museums in Sicily of bear witness two centuries of Graeco-Sicel, Roman and Byzantine culture, making up one of the most remarkable archaeological treasures of old mankind. The temples of Segesta, Selinunte and Agrigento, the theatres of Taormina, Syracuse and Selinunte, the aqueducts of Termini and Agrigento, defensive works of Syracuse ( the Castle of Euryalus) the archaeological museums in Syracuse, Palermo, Trapani, Himera, etc, as well as the vast archaeological sites of ancient cities such us Agrigento, Heraclea Minoa, Himera, Segesta, Selinunte, etc, can to be easily summarized here. For brevity’s sake, we can say that Sicilian art of antiquity was characterized by presence of majestic architectural works in cities developed technical skills (particularly in the field of later –conveying systems), the magnificence of the Roman patrician villas, the refined statuary and the richness and realism of the great mosaic cycles. Old is features flourished again both under the Byzantines and in the Middle Ages when the rest of western Europe was still struggling to free itself from a semi-barbarian condition. Sicilian medieval art in the first decades of the Kingdom (from the end of the 11C trough 12C) was characterized by the fact that almost all the works were commissioned and financed by the Crow. Thanks to their prerogatives as “papal legates”, the members of the Hauteville dynasty were able to build the first great Latin cathedrals (Messina; Lipari; Cefalù; Monreale; Catania; Mazara; Agrigento; etc.).In these churches, the new Latin architectural spatiality imported from central Italy and northern Europe combined with the sumptuous decoration from the Maghreb, with the narrative schemes of Byzantine mosaics, and with Apulian Romanesque sculpture. Roger II built Cefalù Cathedral, where he wished to be buried. Later, he had his Royal Palace erected in Palermo, with his own Palace Chapel (the “Palatine Chapel”), the most magnificent example of Sicilian medieval art, built in 1132 and dedicated to St. Peter.The Royal Palace also housed the royal art and crafts workshop, where crowns, jewels, precious furnishings and ceremonial clothes were made. Some of these can still be admired today, such as the splendid Byzantine imperial crown (Kamelaukion) now displayed in the Cathedral Treasury. Roger II was succeeded by William I, who built the Zisa royal residence within the great royal park. His son, William II, built the Cuba and the majestic Monreale Cathedral, another jewel of royal art. The interior is richly decorated with splendid Byzantine mosaics, and the cloister is one of the most elegant expressions of medieval sculpture applied to architecture. In the meantime, the old Palermo Cathedral was partially demolished and reconstructed as a much larger building on the initiative of Bishop Gualtiero, who transformed it into the greatest cathedral of medieval Sicily. The age of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen was mainly characterized by the building of his castles, which represent a “unicum” in world history. The residential needs of the sovereign and defensive needs were combined and satisfied in construction of refined formal elegance: Castello Ursino (Catania); Castello Maniace (Syracuse) and the Castles of Augusta and Augusta and Milazzo, as well as the Towers of Enna, of the Colombaia in Trapani, and of Gela. In the14C, due to the Vespers War and to Baronial Anarchy, Sicily withdrew into itself, and the art it produced was a mere continuation of the expressive forms which had characterized the previous age. In the 15C, however, the first step was taken towards a new aesthetic taste. The most outstanding figure in architecture was Matteo Carnalivari of Noto, who was active, in Palermo towards the end of the century (Palazzo Abatellis, Palazzo Aiutamicristo and the church of Santa Maria della Catena). Antonello da Messina (1430-1479) is the greatest Sicilian painter of all time, and one of the greatest 15C masters in Europe. Some of his paintings have remained in Sicily: the Portrait of an Unknown, Seaman, in the Cefalù Mandralisca Museum, the Three Saints and the splendid Annunzíata in the Palermo Gallery, the San Gregorio polyptych in the Messina Museum, and the Annunciation in the Palazzo Bellomo Museum in Syracuse. In sculpture, the most outstanding figure was Domenico Gagini (Bissone c 1420 - Palermo 1492), the founder of a workshop which, for many generations, held a prominent position in the field. In the 16C, the expressive forms of Tuscan and Roman Mannerism began to gain ground. The leading figures were: Antonello Gagini (1478-1536) and Polidoro da Caravaggio (the author of two fine lateral doors in the Duomo of Messina). When Antonello died, his work was continued by his sons. Many Tuscan sculptors moved to Sicily during the 16C, including Montorsoli (famous for the fountains of Orion and Neptune; the Scylla, now in the Messina Museum). Among his disciples were Martino Montanini and A. Calamech. In architecture, the forms of Mannerism became popular in the first half of the 17C. Examples of this are, in Palermo: the Quattro Canti (Giulio Lasso); Porta Felice (Pietro Novelli); the churches of Olivella and San Domenico; the old Shipyard (Mariano Smiriglio); the church of the Teatini (Giacomo Besio). And also: the Town Hall in Syracuse (G. Vermexio); the Benedectine Monastery in Catania (V. De Franchis); the College and Church of the Jesuits in Trapani (N. Masuccio). Baroque art was inaugurated by the church of the Annunziata dei Teatini in Messina (Guaríno Guarini). It took more austere forms in Palermo with Paolo Amato (1634-1714): Church of the Salvatore; and Giacomo Amato (1643-1732): Church of the Pietà and Santa Téresa alla Kalsa. The famous Villas of Bagheria are a case apart: here the architects' creativity is reflected in the scenographic architectural design and sinuous external staircases (Villa Palagonia; Villa Valguarnera; etc., 18C). More fanciful Baroque forms characterize the towns rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake (Catania, Syracuse, Noto, Grammichele, Avola, Ragusa, Modica, etc.). The Palermitan Vaccarini planned the reconstruction work in Catania (façade of the Cathedral; Palazzo Valle; the Town Hall; St Agatha's Abbey). Rosario Gagliardi (1726-1770) was active in different centres: Noto, Ragusa, Comiso, Caltagirone. His works include the churches of San Domenico and of the Collegio (Noto), those of San Giorgio and San Giuseppe (Ragusa) and the Cathedral of Modica. All these works are characterized by plastic structures and dynamic and original outlines. In painting, the most outstanding figure was P. Novelli of Monreale (1603-1647). His works include the paintings in the Capuchin churches at Ragusa and Leonforte, a large painting in Monreale, and a St. Christopher in the Catania Museum. Vito D'Anna (1720-1769) can be considered the founder of the school of Sicilian fresco painters of the second half of the century. In sculpture, Giacomo Serpotta (1656-1732) occupies a place of his own. The descendant of a family of sculptors and plastic artists, he was active in Palermo, where he decorated with joyful stuccoes a large number of churches and oratories (Oratories of San Lorenzo, Santa Cita, etc.). Another great sculptor and plastic artist was Ignazio Marabitti (1719-1797) (marble altarpiece of the Apotheosis of St. Benedict in Monreale Cathedral). 19C architecture began with the neoclassical work of the Palermitan G. V. Marvuglia (1729-1814), including the Oratory of San Filippo Neri all'Olivella and Villa Belmonte, in the Acquasanta quarter (Palermo). The most outstanding figures of late-19C architecture were the Palermitans G. B. F. Basile (Teatro Massimo) and G. Damiani Almeyda (Politeama Garibaldi). The period between the 19C and the 20C was dominated by the architect Ernesto Basile, a talented designer who introduced a refined and independent Sicilian Liberty style, a forerunner of Rationalism. Among his disciples were several distinguished architects.

THE NORMANS IN SICILY

To call them "Vikings" (Norsemen) is to oversimplify the culture of the medieval Normans, for their society, heritage and genetic make-up were as Frankish and Roman as they were Norse. The term "Norman" refers to the residual Norse and Frankish civilization of Normandy. Much as the Lombards of Lombardy were not purely Longobardic, the Normans of Normandy were not purely Norse. In fact, they were descended not only from Vikings but from Franks, Romans and Celts, and their language was a dialect of French. Unlike their Viking forebears, the Normans were Christians, and their society was highly evolved in its government, law, art, architecture and literature, which during the twelfth century profoundly influenced not only Normandy but England and southern Italy.
The Norsemen ("Viking" comes from the early Scandinavian word vikingr for "pirates") were Danish, Norwegian and Swedish adventurers who rose to power in the ninth century, raiding the coasts of northwestern Europe in places like England and Ireland, and sailing as far as North America. The Swedish element penetrated overland and along rivers into the Baltics and Russia to the Black Sea. Constantinople's Varangian Guard consisted of Vikings such as Harald Sigurdsson ("Hardrada") who fought alongside Normans with George Maniakes in Byzantine Sicily. The Vikings were initially pagans, and their colorful mythology has given us the English names of several days of the week (Wednesday for Woden, Thursday for Thor, etc.), following an earlier Roman custom of naming the days for gods (as in the Italian Mercoledì for Mercury and Giovedì for Jove or Jupiter).
The Franks were a Germanic tribe which settled in Gaul (France and southern Belgium) during the decline of the Roman Empire. The Romans abandoned part of Belgium to the Franks in AD 358. By 507, much of France was united under the Christianized Frankish king Clovis. This included what is now Normandy.
By 900, Vikings were raiding this region but also establishing outposts there. In antiquity, the region of the Seine and Eure valleys had been Celtic. It fell under Roman control through the efforts of Julius Caesar. The Franks had ruled not only in the person of Clovis, but under the reign of Charlemagne. After 911, Charles III "the Simple" ceded Normandy to the Norse chieftain Hrolf (Rollo), who became a Christian. Immigration rapidly increased, and by 1000, following several generations of intermarriage with the "native" Frankish-Celtic population (i.e. Viking men marrying Frankish women), a distinct ethnic culture had emerged. In the decades to follow, Norman knights arrived in Italy, first as pilgrims and then as mercenaries, taking part (on both sides) in the wars between Byzantines and Lombards. In some cases, these were the younger sons of nobles who (under Frankish law) could not inherit lands destined for eldest sons. In others, they were simply wandering men-at-arms.
In general, the Normans of England were somewhat higher-born than their compatriots in Italy, their surnames typically based on familial fiefs in Normandy. Like the conquest of England, the Normans' conquest of Italy was characterized by social and political motivations, though it was much slower than the English campaign. The patriarchs of Rome (the popes) resented Byzantine influence in Italy, and the power of the Lombard feudatories (in peninsular Italy) was viewed as a nuisance. There were also more racist motives. Whereas the competition between Saxons and Normans for England was largely a question of Saxon English-ness versus Norman greed, the campaign against the Sicilian Arabs had all the makings of a "holy war," whether justified or not. The Papacy made it clear that restoring Sicily to Latin Christiandom (separating its Orthodox Christians from Constantinople's influence) was at least as important as reducing the influence of Islam on the island. In the event, the Normans did not Latinize Sicily rapidly enough for Papal tastes, nor did they immediately seek to convert the island's Muslims. In fact, they were often at odds with the popes.
In 1054, the Church separated. The Great Schism left the Latin ("Roman") West distinctive of the Byzantine ("Greek") East, resulting in the churches now described as "Catholic" and "Orthodox." In truth, the conflict had been brewing for two centuries or more, and far transcended theology. In 1061, having assumed control of much of southern Italy, a Norman force crossed into Sicily at Messina and seized the city from its Saracen garrison. The Sicilian conquest now underway was slow and difficult. In 1066, a Norman force, including some knights who had fought in the Italian campaigns, won the Battle of Hastings (based in part on tactics learned at Messina), establishing the Norman presence in England. London was taken soon afterward. In Sicily, on the other hand, the de Hauteville brothers, Robert "Guiscard" and Roger, reached Palermo only in 1071. While Saxon lords paid fealty to William "the Conqueror" of England almost immediately, it took Roger and his knights more than a decade following the Battle of Palermo to bring the entire island under Norman control. (Emir Ibn Hamud of Kasr Yanni surrendered only in 1087.) It was worth the effort. Their Mediterranean jewel was more important --and far wealthier-- than William's rainy realm in the North Sea; revenues from the city of Palermo alone eclipsed those of all England.
For all that, the Normans were not the first northern European invaders to reach Sicilian shores during the Middle Ages. That distinction belongs to the Vandals and Goths, whose rule was short-lived and left few visible traces. By contrast, vestiges of Norman Sicily are everywhere to be found. --particularly churches and castles.
Sicilian society was more sophisticated than what the Normans encountered in England or even mainland Italy. The polyglot culture of the Arabs and Byzantines was a prosperous intellectual, artistic and economic environment at the center of the most important region of the "Western World" --the Mediterranean. It was a geographic crossroads between north and south, east and west. The beautiful Romanesque architectural style of Normandy (Cefalù's cathedral is based on Caen's Saint Etienne church), so important in changing the face of Saxon England, was welcome in Sicily, but it merely embellished what the Byzantines and Arabs already knew. The "Norman-Arab" style of art and architecture was unique, combining Byzantine, Moorish and northern European movements in a new expression of aesthetics.
More important than this was the evolution of the social fabric of Norman Sicily, adapting essentially Arab institutions to European realities. Throughout the Norman era (roughly from1070 to 1200), ethnic and religious tolerance were generally accepted as integral parts of Sicilian society. Though there were conflicts, multicultural co-existence usually prevailed. The Church, but also the Sicilian language, was gradually Latinized. European institutions such as feudalism were introduced. In effect, Norman Sicily became part of Europe rather than Africa (under the Moors) or Asia (under the Byzantines).
On a humanistic level, its multicultural orientation was important enough, but Sicily's emergence as one of Europe's most important regions ushered in a "Golden Age" which continued into the "Swabian" era (of Frederick II) during the thirteenth century. It was probably Sicily's finest hour. The twelfth century saw Sicily become a kingdom under Roger II (whose realm included not only Sicily but most of Italy south of Rome). The Norman government included clerics and from England and Normandy, great Arab thinkers such as Abdullah al-Idrisi, and a young Anglo-Norman queen.
Nowadays, "New World" nations such as Canada, the United States and Australia seem to represent the epitome of tolerant, multicultural societies. In the Middle Ages, however, the concept was a novel one. True, the Roman Empire had embraced many cultures, but it could be argued that Norman Sicily supported a truer equality than most places offered, and it was more benevolent than ancient Rome. Slavery was eventually all but abolished, and serfdom was never as prevalent as it was in England, France or Germany, while freedom of speech and literacy came to be considered every Sicilian's birthright. The Normans' system of justice allowed separate --but equal-- jurisdictions based on Shari'a law for Muslims, Judaic law for Jews, Byzantine Greek law for Byzantines and Norman feudal law for Normans. Important documents were multilingual. True, a Latin (and Roman Catholic) orientation eventually prevailed, but until the reign of Frederick II a more or less egalitarian society existed. At least for a time, it was a successful experiment, and a necessary one.
Despite its ethnic diversity, or perhaps because of it, Norman Sicily evolved into an enduring "nation" with Sicilians as its "people." In other Italian regions such developments were literally centuries away. (This was even true of Sardinia, which, as an island, might reasonably be expected to assume a "national" identity long before it did.) In time, the territory ruled by the Normans, contiguous to Magna Graecia, became known to Italians simply as "il Regno" ("the Kingdom"). Palermo (the Arabs' Bal'harm) was the capital of this realm and later, under Frederick II, the capital of the entire Holy Roman Empire. The period beginning with the arrival of the Normans in 1061 and ending with the death of their descendant, Frederick, in 1250, was a brief --but remarkable-- shining moment in European history.
The Normans retained much of Arab society. After all, there was no need to change certain things which functioned well. Some everyday sights, like the souks (street markets) and Romanesque windows, still exist, of course, but throughout the twelfth century it was the Arabs' institutions that truly distinguished Sicily from other Norman territories, particularly England. Instead of abolishing existing policies and institutions, the Normans built upon what already existed, adapting these as they found necessary. This was enlightened rule, especially from renegades and mercenaries who just a few decades earlier were pillaging the Italian countryside.
It is generally believed that most red-haired and blue-eyed Sicilians owe their coloring to the medieval Normans or the Lombards who often accompanied them. Yet we do not know how many Normans settled in Sicily. Most were men, most were knights or other soldiers, and many were feudatories, effectively constituting the earliest medieval Sicilian landed aristocracy. Most married Sicilian-born women. The best estimate of the Norman migration places it at fewer than eight thousand persons arriving between 1061 and 1161, but even this is highly speculative. It certainly was not a mass immigration comparable to those of the Arabs (Saracens) or ancient Greeks. The first Norman incursions into Sicily were measured in hundreds of Norman knights accompanied by greater numbers of non-Norman infantry, and not all of them remained here. Except for Benedictine and diocesan clergy, there were few men of learning among the Norman arrivals.
Change did not come overnight. Some localities were more Orthodox Christian and Greek-speaking while others were predominantly Muslim and Arabic-speaking. Mosques stood alongside churches and synagogues. The Norman vassals and knights, though Christian, were Roman Catholic. It was the Normans who Latinized Sicily (just as they Latinized the language of Saxon England), both linguistically and ecclesiastically. Some isolated Orthodox monasteries in the northeast of Sicily survived this process for a time, but most of Sicily's greatest Norman churches, though boasting some superficially Byzantine elements, were founded (or re-constructed) as Latin (Roman Catholic) ones.
The Norman era lasted through four rulers (two Rogers succeeded by two Williams), followed by a Swabian (German) wed to Constance, the last surviving Norman princess, in a land where --at least in theory-- only men ruled. Her son, Frederick II, could be said to have continued the Norman tradition but he was a Hohenstaufen and not a Hauteville. In the event, the "home rule" of Sicily from its own capital effectively ended with his death in the middle of the thirteenth century. Henceforth, the island was to be governed from Naples or from cities even further afield. The Sicily of the Normans represents a unique time in history which, like all such periods, was not to last forever. In the words of John Julius Norwich:
"Norman Sicily stood forth in Europe --and indeed in the whole bigoted medieval world-- as an example of tolerance and enlightenment, a lesson in the respect that every man should feel for those whose blood and beliefs happen to differ from his own."

TRAPANI SICILY

Trapani (Tràpani in Sicilian) is a city on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.

History

Trapani was founded by the Elymians to serve as the port of the nearby city of Erice (ancient Eryx), which overlooks it from Monte San Giuliano. The city sits on a low-lying promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea. It was originally named Drépanon from the Greek word for "sickle", because of the curving shape of its harbour. Carthage seized control of the city in 260 BC, subsequently making it an important naval base, but ceded it to Rome in 241 BC following the Battle of the Aegates in the First Punic War.
Two ancient legends tell of mythical origins for the city. In the first legend, Trapani stemmed from the sickle which fell from the hands of the goddess Demeter while she was seeking for her daughter Persephone, who had been kidnapped by Hades. The second myth features Saturn, god of the sky, who eviscerated his father Cronus with a sickle which, falling into the sea, created the city. In ancient times Saturn was the god-protector of Trapani. Today Saturn's statue stands in a piazza in the centre of the city.
The city was badly damaged during World War II when it was subjected to intense Allied bombardments. It has grown greatly since the end of the war, sprawling out virtually to the foot of Monte San Giuliano. Tourism has grown in recent years due to the city's proximity to popular destinations such as Erice, Segesta and the Egadi Islands.

Economy
Much of Trapani's economy still depends on the sea. Fishing and canning are an important local industries, with fishermen using the mattanza technique to catch tuna. Coral is also an important export, along with salt, marble and marsala wine. The nearby coast is lined with numerous salt-pans.
The city is also an important ferry port, with links to the Egadi Islands, Pantelleria, Sardinia and Tunisia, and an airport, Trapani Birgi.

Sights

Much of the old town of Trapani dates from the later medieval or early modern periods; there are no extant remains of the ancient city. Many of the city's historic buildings are designed in the Baroque style. Notable monuments include:
The Church of Sant'Agostino (14th century, with the splendid rose-window
The Church of Santa Maria di Gesù (15th century-16th century)
The magnificent Basilica-Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata (also called "Madonna di Trapani") originally built in 1315–1332 and rebuilt in 1760. It houses a marble statue of the Madonna of Trapani, which might be the work of Nino Pisano, and with the important museum "Agostino Pepoli".
Fontana di Tritone (Triton's Fountain)
The Baroque Palazzo della Giudecca or Casa Ciambra
The Cathedral (1635)
The city is renowned for its Easter procession, The Misteri, when the town's guilds parade a groups of sculpted 17th century and 18th century religious statues through the streets in a procession lasting for 16 hours on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

CATANIA SICILY

Catania (Greek: Κατάνη – Katánē; Latin: Catăna and Catĭna; Arabic: Balad-al-Fil or Medinat-al-Fil, Wadi Musa and Qataniyah) is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the eponymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants (752,895 in the Metropolitan Area) it is the second-largest city on the island.

Etymology

Siculian Prehistory
The ancient population of Sicels were wont to found and denominate their cities and villages choosing between geographical connotations and peculiar attributes of the locations they discovered and peopled.The Siculian word "Katane" signifies "grater, flaying knife, skinning place or even a crude tool apt to pare". This term was immediately adopted by the new Greek colonists to rename the preexistent indigenous place which already had a like epithet. Further acceptations for this locution are: harsh lands, uneven ground, sharp stones, rugged or rough soil.
Such last variety of senses is easily justifiable since in the centuries the Metropolis of Etna has always been rebuilt and set inside its typical black lavic landscape.

Chalcidian Colony of the Sicilian Naxos
Around 729 BC, the archaic village of Katane became the Chalcidian colony of Katánē where all the native population was bound to be rapidly assimilated and Hellenized. The Naxian founders, coming from the close coast, will make use of the primal autochthonal name for their new settlement along the River Amenanus.

Roman Empire
Around 263 BC, the Etnean Decuman City was far-famed as Catĭna and Catăna.
The former has been primarily utilized for a supposed assonance with "catina", namely the Latin feminization of the vocable "catinus". Catinus hides, in fact, two main values: "a gulf, a basin, a bay" and "a bowl, a vessel, a trough". Both explications may be admissible thanks to the city’s distinctive trait and topography. Catania has constantly abutted on the waters of its vast homonymous Gulf, and besides she has always been reconstructed without having to fear of growing on the blackish asperities of the acuminate slopes of Etna.

Arab Conquest of Sicily
Around 900 AD, the Saracenic Dominance gave rise to Balad-Al-Fil and Medinat-Al-Fil, the two official Catania's Arabic appellatives. The first translates "The Village or The Country of the Elephant" and the second is simply and proudly "The City of the Elephant". The Elephant is the lavic one of Piazza Duomo’s Fountain, probably just a prehistorical sculpture reforged in Byzantine Era, an idolatrised talisman that was reputed capable to protect the city from any sort of enemies and powerful enough to keep away misfortune, plagues or natural calamities.
The Moslem Conquerors accepted this pachydermical protection deciding to name after it the vanquished town. Today's name stems from an Arab toponym. Qatanyiah are literally "the leguminous plants" (in Arab "Qataniyy"), whose feminized collective suffix is "yiah".
Pulses like lentils, beans, peas, broad beans and lupins were chiefly cultivated in the Catanian Plain before the arrival of Aghlabites' soldiery from Tunisia.
Afterwards, many Islamic Agronomists will be the principal boosters and those who overcropped the citruses orchards in the greater part of Sicily's ploughlands.
Lastly, Wadi Musa intends the River or the Valley of Moses that is to say the sometime Arab name of the Symaethus River, but this denomination was rarely associated to pinpoint the seat of the then Emirate of Catania.

Geography
Catania is located on the east coast of the island, at the foot of the active volcano Mount Etna. The position of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna was the source, as Strabo remarks, both of benefits and evils to the city. For on the one hand, the violent outbursts of the volcano from time to time desolated great parts of its territory; on the other, the volcanic ashes produced a soil of great fertility, adapted especially for the growth of vines. (Strab. vi. p. 269.) Under the city run the river Amenano, visible in just one point, south of Piazza Duomo and the river Longane or Lognina.

History

Foundation
All ancient authors agree in representing Catania as a Greek colony named Κατάνη (Katánē—see also List of traditional Greek place names) of Chalcidic origin, but founded immediately from the neighboring city of Naxos, under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos (Euarchus).
The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides to have followed shortly after that of Leontini (modern Lentini), which he places in the fifth year after Syracuse, or 730 BCE. (Thuc. vi. 3; Strabo vi. p. 268; Scymn. Ch. 286; Scyl. § 13; Steph. B. s. v.)

Greek Sicily
The only event of its early history which has been transmitted to us is the legislation of Charondas, and even of this the date is wholly uncertain.
But from the fact that his legislation was extended to the other Chalcidic cities, not only of Sicily, but of Magna Graecia also, as well as to his own country (Arist., Pol. ii. 9), it is evident that Catania continued in intimate relations with these kindred cities.
It seems to have retained its independence till the time of Hieron of Syracuse, but that despot, in 476 BCE, expelled all the original inhabitants, whom he established at Leontini, while he repeopled the city with a new body of colonists, amounting, it is said, to not less than 10,000 in number, and consisting partly of Syracusans, partly of Peloponnesians.
He at the same time changed its name to Αἴτνη (Aítnē, Aetna or Ætna, after the nearby Mount Etna, an activevolcano), and caused himself to be proclaimed the Oekist or founder of the new city. As such he was celebrated by Pindar, and after his death obtained heroic honors from the citizens of his new colony. (Diod. xi. 49, in 66; Strab. l.c.; Pind. Pyth. i., and Schol. ad loc.)
But this state of things was of brief duration, and a few years after the death of Hieron and the expulsion of Thrasybulus, the Syracusans combined with Ducetius, king of the Siculi, to expel the newly settled inhabitants of Catania, who were compelled to retire to the fortress of Inessa (to which they gave the name of Aetna), while the old Chalcidic citizens were reinstated in the possession of Catania, 461 BCE. (Diod. xi. 76; Strab. l. c.)
The period which followed the settlement of affairs at this epoch appears to have been one of great prosperity for Catania, as well as for the Sicilian cities in general: but we have no details of its history till the great Athenian expedition to Sicily (part of the larger Peloponnesian War).
On that occasion the Catanaeans, notwithstanding their Chalcidic connections, at first refused to receive the Athenians into their city: but the latter having effected an entrance, they found themselves compelled to espouse the alliance of the invaders, and Catania became in consequence the headquarters of the Athenian armament throughout the first year of the expedition, and the base of their subsequent operations against Syracuse. (Thuc. vi. 50-52, 63, 71, 89; Diod. xiii. 4, 6, 7; Plut. Nic. 15, 16.)
We have no information as to the fate of Catania after the close of this expedition: it is next mentioned in 403 BCE, when it fell into the power of Dionysius I of Syracuse, who sold the inhabitants as slaves, and gave up the city to plunder; after which he established there a body of Campanian mercenaries.
These, however, quit it again in 396 BCE, and retired to Aetna, on the approach of the great Carthaginian armament under Himilco and Mago. The great sea-fight in which the latter defeated Leptines, the brother of Dionysius, was fought immediately off Catania, and the city apparently[weasel words] fell, in consequence, into the hands of the Carthaginians. (Diod. xiv. 15, 58, 60.)
But we have no account of its subsequent fortunes, nor does it appear who constituted its new population; it is only certain that it continued to exist. Callippus, the assassin of Dion, when he was expelled from Syracuse, for a time held possession of Catania (Plut. Dion. 58); and when Timoleon landed in Sicily we find it subject to a despot named Mamercus, who at first joined the Corinthian leader but afterwards abandoned his alliance for that of the Carthaginians, and was in consequence attacked and expelled by Timoleon. (Diod. xvi. 69; Plut. Timol. 13, 30-34.)
Catania was now restored to liberty, and appears to have continued to retain its independence; during the wars of Agathocles with the Carthaginians, it sided at one time with the former, at others with the latter; and when Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, Catania was the first to open its gates to him, and received him with the greatest magnificence. (Diod. xix. 110, xxii. 8, Exc. Hoesch. p. 496.)

Roman Rule
In the First Punic War, Catania was one of the first among the cities of Sicily, which made their submission to the Roman Republic, after the first successes of their arms in 263 BC. (Eutrop. ii. 19.) The expression of Pliny (vii. 60) who represents it as having been taken by Valerius Messala, is certainly a mistake.
It appears to have continued afterwards steadily to maintain its friendly relations with Rome, and though it did not enjoy the advantages of a confederate city (foederata civitas), like its neighbors Tauromenium (modern Taormina) and Messana (modern Messina), it rose to a position of great prosperity under the Roman rule.
Cicero repeatedly mentions it as, in his time, a wealthy and flourishing city; it retained its ancient municipal institutions, its chief magistrate bearing the title of Proagorus; and appears to have been one of the principal ports of Sicily for the export of corn. (Cic. Verr. iii. 4. 3, 83, iv. 23, 45; Liv. xxvii. 8.)
It subsequently suffered severely from the ravages of Sextus Pompeius, and was in consequence one of the cities to which a colony was sent by Augustus; a measure that appears to have in a great degree restored its prosperity, so that in Strabo's time it was one of the few cities in the island that was in a flourishing condition. (Strab. vi. pp. 268, 270, 272; Dion Cass. iv. 7.)
It retained its colonial rank, as well as its prosperity, throughout the period of the Roman Empire; so that in the 4th century Ausonius in his Ordo Nobilium Urbium, notices Catania and Syracuse alone among the cities of Sicily. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 9; Itin. Ant. pp. 87,90, 93, 94).

Locational Significance
One of the most serious eruptions of Etna happened in 121 BCE, when great part of Catania was overwhelmed by streams of lava, and the hot ashes fell in such quantities in the city itself, as to break in the roofs of the houses.
Catania was in consequence exempted, for 10 years, from its usual contributions to the Roman state. (Oros. v. 13.) The greater part of the broad tract of plain to the southwest of Catania (now called the Piana di Catania, a district of great fertility), appears to have belonged, in ancient times, to Leontini or Centuripa (modern Centuripe), but that portion of it between Catana itself and the mouth of the Symaethus, was annexed to the territory of the latter city, and must have furnished abundant supplies of corn.
The port of Catania also, which was in great part filled up by the eruption of 1669, appears to have been in ancient times much frequented, and was the chief place of export for the corn of the rich neighboring plains. The little river Amenanus, or Amenas, which flowed through the city, was a very small stream, and could never have been navigable.

Catania's Renown in Antiquity
Catania was the birth-place of the philosopher and legislator Charondas; it was also the place of residence of the poet Stesichorus, who died there, and was buried in a magnificent sepulchre outside one of the gates, which derived from thence the name of Porta Stesichoreia. (Suda, under Στησίχορος.)
Xenophanes, the philosopher of Elea, also spent the latter years of his life there (Diog. Laert. ix. 2. § 1), so that it was evidently, at an early period, a place of cultivation and refinement.
The first introduction of dancing to accompany the flute, was also ascribed to Andron, a citizen of Catania (Athen. i. p. 22, c.); and the first sundial that was set up in the Roman forum was carried thither by Valerius Messala from Catania, 263 BCE. (Varr. ap. Plin. vii. 60.)
But few associations connected with Catania were more celebrated in ancient times than the Legend of the Pii Fratres, Amphinomus and Anapias, who, on occasion of a great eruption of Etna, abandoned all their property, and carried off their aged parents on their shoulders, the stream of lava itself was said to have parted, and flowed aside so as not to harm them.
Statues were erected to their honor, and the place of their burial was known as the Campus Piorum; the Catanaeans even introduced the figures of the youths on their coins, and the legend became a favorite subject of allusion and declamation among the Latin poets, of whom the younger Lucilius and Claudian have dwelt upon it at considerable length.
The occurrence is referred by Hyginus to the first eruption of Etna that took place after the settlement of Catania. (Strab. vi. p. 269; Paus. x. 28. § 4; Conon, Narr. 43; Philostr. Vit. Apoll. v. 17; Solin. 5. § 15; Hygin. 254; Val. Max. v. 4. Ext. § 4; Lucil. Aetn. 602-40; Claudian. Idyll. 7; Sil. Ital. xiv. 196; Auson. Ordo Nob. Urb. 11.)

From the Fall of the Roman Empire to Unification of Italy

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Catania, like the rest of Sicily, became subject of various dominations by a series of Empires, dynasties and populations:
The Byzantine domination from VI c. to IX c.
The Arabic domination from IX c. to XI c.
The Norman domination from XI c. to XII c.
The Swabian domination from XII c. to XIII. c.
The Angevin domination during the XIII c.
The Aragonese domination from XIII c. to XV c.
The Spanish domination from XV. c. to XVIII. c
The Sabaudian domination during the XVIII c.
The Austrian domination during the XVIII c.
The Borbonic domination from XVIII c. up to the Unification of Italy (1861)
In 1693 the city was completely destroyed by earthquakes and by lava flows which ran over and around it into the sea. The city was then rebuilt in the precious baroque architecture that nowadays enjoys.

Catania in Unified Italy

In 1860 General Garibaldi freed Sicily putting an end to fourteen centuries of foreign domination, and since 1861 Catania is a free city of Italy, whose history it shares since then.
After World War II, and the constitution of Italian Republic (1946), the history of Catania is, like the history of other cities of Southern Italy, an attempt to catch up with the economic and social development of the richer Northern Italy and to solve the problems that for historic reasons plague the south of Italy, namely a heavy gap in industrial development and infrastructures, and the presence of criminal organisations.
This notwithstanding, Catania during the 60s (and partly during the 90s) enjoyed a great development and an economic, social and cultural effervescence.
In the last years, Catania economy and social development somewhat faltered and in these years the city is facing economic and social stagnation.

The comuni forming the Metropolitan Area are:
Aci Bonaccorsi
Aci Castello
Aci Catena
Aci Sant'Antonio
Acireale
Belpasso
Camporotondo Etneo
Catania
Gravina di Catania
Mascalucia
Misterbianco
Motta Sant'Anastasia
Nicolosi
Paternò
Pedara
Ragalna
San Giovanni la Punta
San Gregorio di Catania
San Pietro Clarenza
Sant'Agata li Battiati
Santa Maria di Licodia
Santa Venerina
Trecastagni
Tremestieri Etneo
Valverde
Viagrande
Zafferana Etnea
These comuni form a system with the centre of Catania sharing its economical and social life and forming an organic urban texture.
The Metropolitan Area of Catania has not to be confounded with the Province of Catania, a far broader area that counts 58 comuni and 1,081,915 inhabitants,[2] but which does not form an urban system with the city.

Demographics
As of December 2007, there are 298,597 people residing in Catania,[2] of whom 47.2% are male and 52.8% are female. Minors (children age 18 and younger) totalled 20.50 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 18.87 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners).
The average age of Catania residents is 41 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Catania declined by 3.35 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85 percent.[2] The reason of this population decline in the Comune di Catania is mainly to be attributed to population leaving the city centre to go to live in the up-town residential areas of the comuni of the Metropolitan Area. As a result of this, while the population in the comune di Catania declines, the population of the hinterland comuni increases making the overall population of the Metropolitan area of Catania increase.[2]
The current birth rate of Catania is 10.07 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. As of 2006, 98.03% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group came from sub-saharan Africa: 0.69%, South Asia: 0.46%, and from other European countries (particularly from Ukraine and Poland): 0.33%. Catania is almost entirely Roman Catholic.

Catania's Escutcheon
The symbol of the city is u Liotru, or the Fontana dell'Elefante, and was assembled in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. It is made of marble portraying an ancient lavic elephant and surmounted by an Egyptian obelisk from Syene. Tall tale has it that Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility. To appease them, Vaccarini appended appropriately elephantine testicles to the original statue.
The Sicilian name u Liotru is the deformation of the name Heliodorus who was a sorcerer and necromancer from Catania. He was a nobleman who, after trying without success to become bishop of the city, became a sorcerer and was therefore condemned to the stake. Legend has it that Heliodorus himself was the sculptor of the lava elephant and that he used to magically rode it in his travels from Catania to Costantinople. Another legend has it that Heliodorus could be capable of transforming himself into an elephant.
A similar sculpture is in Piazza Santa Maria della Minerva in Rome. Catania's coat of arms is a red elephant on a light-blue field with an "A" (Agatha's initial or the first letter of Aetna) set higher above its back.

Elephant's Tutelage
The folk presence of an elephant in the millenary history of Catania is mainly connected to both zooarcheology and popular creeds.
In the Upper Paleolithic, in fact, the prehistoric fauna of Sicily enumerated a host of dwarf elephants.
The Catanian Museum of Mineralogy, Paleonthology and Vulcanology takes care of the integral unburied skeleton of an elephas falconeri in an excellent state of conservation. The primitive inhabiters of Etna and whilom forefathers of the latter-day Catanians, molded such lavic artifact to idolize the mythical proboscidian they had considered the sole responsible of the resolutive ejection of all the vexing animals from the volcanic territories.
This venerated black sculpture survived the centuries to outlast till today. It is doubtless the most ancient Catania's monument, followed by the Syenian obelisk positioned on its spine.
In the official heraldry its scarfskin became red to recollect the colour of the ardent lava. But the most-told occurrence that will be fundamental to radicate this kind of affection for the beloved Liotru is on the other hand strictly due to the local and documented legend of the "magician" Heliodorus.

Civic Mottoes
The two most recurrent Latin mottoes of Catania are readable on the marble tags set on the baroque prospect of the monumental Triumphal Arch of Piazza Palestro whose name is "Porta Garibaldi" (Garibaldi Gate) but also "Porta Ferdinandea" (Ferdinandean Gate).
They still recite:"Melior De Cinere Surgo" (I Arise Better My From Ashes) and "Armis Decoratur, Litteris Armatur" (Adorned with Weapons, Armed with Letters).
The first underlines the interchange down the ages between its unforeseen destructions and the gradual and successive reconstructions, comparing such cyclicities of sudden ruinations and consequent rebirths to the legend of the mythical Phoenix, the fiery creature perennially fated to upspring anew from its own embers. This firebird is, in fact, sculpted atop the archway of the forenamed structure.
The second simply wants to emphasize the role of cultural and University hub for the whole Sicily from Middle Ages till modern times.
Several "stylized armaments" were largely reproduced and utilized as ornaments or architectural elements to bedight the fronts of the main noblemen's mansions.

Landmarks

Classical

Catania: Ruins of Greek-Roman theater with the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi nigh The Immaculate (S.Francesco d'Assisi all'Immacolata)

Catania: Roman Amphitheatre in Stesichorus Square

Catania: Terme dell'Indirizzo - The Guidance's Thermæ
The city has been buried by lava a total of seven times in recorded history, and in layers under the present day city are the Roman city that preceded it, and the Greek city before that. Many of the ancient monuments of the Roman city have been destroyed by the numerous seisms. Currently, remains of the following buildings can be seen:
The Greek-Roman Theatre (2nd century)
The Odeon (3rd century CE)
The Catanian Amphitheatre (2nd century)
The Greek Acropolis of Mountvirgin's Hill (Collina di Montevergine)
The Roman Aqueduct's Ruins
The Roman Forum in Piazza San Pantaleone
Roman ruins in Cortile Archirotti
Several Christian basilicas, hypogea, Roman burial monuments and Catacombs in some urban areas.
The Roman Columns in Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini
Roman structures:
The Achillean Thermæ • Terme Achilliane or Terme Achillee
The remains of the monumental complex are beneath Piazza Duomo.Its underground bounds underlie almost all the buildings established on the surface: the Cathedral Church, the former seat of the Clerics' Seminary, the Elephant's Fountain, the Archbishop's See and the bordering angles of the Senatorial Palace.They are also the place where the earthly life of the sorcerer Heliodorus was surceased by St.Leo of Catania.
The "Thaumaturgus" drew this devil's mate in its inside to jump with him into a pyre that he had ordered to prepare. Both were clutched by the flames.
But while the godless fiend began burning to ashes at once, the Wonder Worker's figure came out slowly and miraculously unharmed, with his Sacred Paraments intact and undamaged. This fact should have happened in 778 AD while Saint Leo's death will befall exactly nine years later in 787 AD.
The thermae's access is made easier by a little adit opening on the right side of Saint Agatha's front. Through the use of a modern stairs, the visitors can pass across a 2,50 m barrel-vaulted corridor . This passageway guides in its innermost part, a rectangular ample area measuring 12x13m, formed by a wide hall with four pillars bearing the overhead ceiling .In past times these old columns were bedecked with stuccoes representing handful of younkers and bacchantes, animals and clusters of grapes. The most part of these beautiful decorations have been irremediably lost along the centuries.
This has induced the local archaeologists to identify the surrounding zone with the Balnea Bacchi or Roman Baths of Bacchus. Several rooms are actually situated northward, rightward and southward the aforesaid atrium.
The adjective Achillean is attested by a Greek inscription, recovered in pieces in different epochs. It furnishes the current denomination and it describes the complessive remaking works and the contemporary repairing of the heating's distribution system. According to the appointments of the whilom consuls in charge the refurbishment is datable to the period around 434 AD.However, the exact datation of the real edification is still unknown. They were supplied by the nearby waters of the Amenanus which keeps running in the thereabouts.
With regard to the name, many scholars uphold that its main entrance contained a marble reproduction of Achilles towering above the regular patrons. But probably, the most correct explication is motivated instead for the presence along the inward perimeter of lance-armed statues of muscled nude men that were apostrophed as the Achilleae Statuae.Pliny the Elder has cited this sort of sculptures in his Natural History to refer to the idolatry and cultural habits towards the Thessalian Hero.
Saint Mary of Guidance's Thermal Baths • Terme dell'Indirizzo
Immured in a school courtyard, they are located behind the Church of Saint Mary of Guidance whose entitlement is commonly adopted for their easier and generic identification.
Saint Mary of Itria's Thermal Baths • Terme dell'Itria
Saint Mary of the Rotunda's Thermal Baths • Terme della Rotonda
The Four Quoin's Thermæ • Terme dei Quattro Canti

Catania: Via Etnea-Quattro Canti - Etnean Street and one of the Four Quoins
They lie under the street mantle of Via Etnea - the main thoroughfare of the city - in the point of intersection with the uphill Via Antonino Paternò Castello di Sangiuliano. This viary conjunction creates a scenographical and monumental quadrangle that gave rise to the name assigned to this crossroads. The exact center of convergence of these two arteries is the cradle of the city's baroque reëdification carried out by the Noble Superintendent Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of Camastra.In 1694 he was appointed by the Viceroy Juan Francisco Pacheco de Uceda,representing the Spanish Government, to accomplish the urban uprise after the apocalyptic earthquake of 1693.
The aristocratic Palace of the family Massa di San Demetrio was the first construction of Catania to be rebuilt from the smoking rubbles. Thenceforth, the four prospects designing this rhomboidal square are always the same:the aforecited abode, other two baroque dwellings and the sideward flank of a religious cloister.
Palazzo Asmundo's Thermæ • Terme di Palazzo Asmundo
University's Thermæ • Terme del Palazzo dell'Università
Casa Gagliano's Thermæ • Terme di Casa Gagliano
Saint Anthony Abbot's Thermæ • Terme della Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate

Baroque and Historical Churches
The baroque city centre of Catania is a UNESCO Wold Heritage Site

Basilica di San Nicola l'Arena • Basilica of St. Nicholas the Arena

San Placido • Saint Placid

Badìa di Sant'Agata • St. Agatha's Abbey

San Francesco d'Assisi all'Immacolata • St. Francis of Assisi nigh The Immaculate

Sant'Agata alla Fornace or San Biagio • St. Agatha by the Furnace or St. Blaise

Santa Maria dell'Aiuto • Marian Sanctuary of St. Mary of Help

San Benedetto da Norcia • St. Benedict of Nursia

San Francesco Borgia • St. Francis Borgia
Saint Agatha's Cathedral • Duomo di Sant'Agata (1070-1093)
Saint Agatha's Abbey • Badìa di Sant'Agata (1620)
Saint Placid • Chiesa di San Placido
Saint Joseph by the Dome • Chiesa di San Giuseppe al Duomo
Most Holy Sacrament by the Dome • Chiesa del Santissimo Sacramento al Duomo
Saint Martin of the White Garbs • Chiesa di San Martino dei Bianchi
Saint Agatha the Eldest • Chiesa di Sant'Agata la Vetere (254)
Saint Agatha by the Furnace or Saint Blaise • Chiesa di Sant'Agata alla Fornace or San Biagio (1098, rebuilt in 1700)
Saint Prison's Church or Saint Agatha in Jail • Chiesa del Santo Carcere or Sant'Agata al Carcere (1760)
Saint Francis of Assisi nigh the Immaculate (Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi all' Immacolata) , housing the mortal remains of Queen Eleanor of Sicily. (1329)
Saint Benedict of Nursia • Chiesa di San Benedetto di Norcia (1704-1713)
Great Abbey and Little Abbey of Benedictine Nuns' Cloister • Badìa Grande e Badìa Piccola del Chiostro delle Monache Benedettine
Benedictine Nuns' Arch • Arco delle Monache Benedettine
Saint Mary of Alms' Collegiate Basilica (early 18th century).
The Basilica Collegiata di Santa Maria dell'Elemosina is on the Latin cross plan with a nave and two aisles. The high altar has a Madonna icon, probably of Byzantine manufacture.
Saint Mary of Ogninella • Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Ogninella
Saint Michael the Lesser • Chiesa di San Michele Minore
Saint Michael Archangel or Minorites' Church • San Michele Archangelo or Chiesa dei Minoriti
Saint Julian • Chiesa di San Giuliano
Saint Julian's Monastery • Monastero di San Giuliano
Saint Teresa • Chiesa di Santa Teresa
Saint Francis Borgia or Jesuits' Church • San Francesco Borgia or Chiesa dei Gesuiti
Convent of the Jesuits • Convento dei Gesuiti
Saint Mary of Jesus • Chiesa di Santa Maria di Gesù (1465, restored in 1706)
Saint Dominic or Saint Mary the Great • Chiesa di San Domenico or Santa Maria la Grande (1224)
Dominicans' Friary • Monastero dei Domenicani (1224)
Saint Mary of Purity or Saint Mary of Visitation • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Purità or Chiesa della Visitazione (1775)
Madonna of Graces' Chapel • Cappella della Madonna delle Grazie
Saint Ursula • Chiesa di Sant'Orsola
Saint Agatha on the Lavic Runnels • Chiesa di Sant'Agata alle Sciare
Saint Euplius Old Church Ruins • Ruderi della Vecchia Chiesa di Sant'Euplio
Saint Cajetan by the Grottoes • Chiesa di San Gaetano alle Grotte (260)
Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciated Mary of Carmel • Basilica di Maria Santissima Annunziata al Carmine (1729)
Saint Agatha by the Borough • Chiesa di Sant'Agata al Borgo. (1669, destroyed in 1693 and rebuilt in 1709). The "Borough" (il Borgo) is an inner district of Catania.
Saint Nicholas by the Borough • Chiesa di San Nicola al Borgo
Most Holy Sacrament by the Borough • Chiesa del Santissimo Sacramento al Borgo
Saint Mary of Providence by the Borough • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Provvidenza al Borgo
Chapel of the Blind's Hospice • Cappella dell'Ospizio dei Ciechi
Saint Camillus of the Crucifers • Chiesa di San Camillo dei Crociferi
Catanian Benedictine Monastery of Saint Nicholas the Arena • Monastero Benedettino di San Nicola l'Arena (1558)
Basilica of Saint Nicholas the Arena • Chiesa di San Nicola l'Arena (1687)
Saint Mary of Guidance • Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Indirizzo (1730)
Saint Clare • Chiesa di Santa Chiara (1563)
Convent of the Poor Clares • Monastero delle Clarisse (1563)
Saint Sebastian Martyr • Chiesa di San Sebastiano Martire (1313)
Saint Anne • Chiesa di Sant'Anna
Marian Sanctuary of Saint Mary of Help • Santuario di Santa Maria dell'Aiuto
Madonna of Loreto • Chiesa della Madonna di Loreto
Church of the Saint Joseph at Transit • Chiesa di San Giuseppe al Transito
Immaculate Conception of Little Minorites • Chiesa dell'Immacolata Concezione dei Minoritelli
Saint Agatha by Little Virgins' Boarding Convent • Chiesa di Sant'Agata al Conservatorio delle Verginelle
Our Lady of Itria or Saint Mary Hodigitria • Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Itria or Odigitria.
Hodigitria is a Greek word meaning She who shows the Way.
Saint Philip Neri • Chiesa di San Filippo Neri
Saint Martha • Chiesa di Santa Marta
Holy Child • Chiesa del Santo Bambino
Our Lady of Providence • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Provvidenza
Saint Beryllus (or Birillus) inside Saint Mary of the Sick • Chiesa di San Berillo in Santa Maria degli Ammalati
Our Lady of the Poor • Chiesa della Madonna dei Poveri
Saint Vincent de Paul • Chiesa di S.Vincenzo de'Paoli
Saint John the Baptist • Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista in the suburb of San Giovanni di Galermo
Saint Anthony Abbot • Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate
Little Saviour's Byzantine Chapel • Cappella Bizantina del Salvatorello
Saint Augustine •Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Church of the Most Holy Trinity • Chiesa della Santissima Trinità
Church of the Little Virgins • Chiesa delle Verginelle
Our Lady of the Rotunda • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Rotonda
Church of the Most Holy Retrieved Sacrament • Chiesa del Santissimo Sacramento Ritrovato (1796).
This church was constructed on the Lavas of "Armisi", a shelfy locale on the seaward coast of Catania where a Sacred Monstrance with its Holy Hosts were repossessed after a sacrilegious theft occurred in 1796.
On May 29th, a pair of scoundrels entered undisturbed inside the Jesuitic Church of Saint Francis Borgia to seize without apparent hindrance the precious Ostensory. In that period the Dome of Saint Agatha was closed for repairs, so this parish was considered the most apt to assume the cathedral's functions. The two rascals were rapidly singled out and caught, but the broadmindedness of their misdeed produced a profound upset and a palpable indignation that pervaded both the civilian and religious society of the city.
The meticulous researches involved the whole citizenship that contributed with extreme participation and great affliction. Some well-grounded evidences would have led to most precise traces near a lavic expanse looking on to the sea not far from the purlieu of the current central railway station.
And moreover, the presence and the yelps of a little black mongrel, nestled by a prickly pear close to a scabrous hollow where the Holy Pyx was hidden, permitted its exact identification. Amazingly, however, the meek animal had not half a mind to stand aside from the filthy rag that wrapped the Casket.Rather than go away it kept lying down steadily for a long time. It was as though it wanted to protect and care for the mysterious and not edible result of its flair.
A few people started throwing stones toward it but this solution was completely ineffectual and incapable sending it away from its temporary dog's bed. The tries of persuasion of those present will last quite a while.
Because of such disconcerting stubbornness, the then religious authorities decided unanimously to lay the foundation stone of the new Temple of the Most Holy Retrieved Sacrament over a "forlorn and unsuited area abounding in magmatic scales".
The district, where the episode took place, will be commonly known as the Quarter of "Our Refound Lord" ("Nostru Signuri Asciatu" in local dialect and "Nostro Signore Ritrovato" in Italian).
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ognina • Santuario di Santa Maria in Ognina (1308).
Ognina is the maritime quarter and the main fishing pole of Catania. Many bareboats and umpteen smacks gather and crowd here all year round.
During summertime this craggy inlet becomes a sort of vacationland for many Catanians, both denizens and provincials. The little Church of Saint Mary of Ognina, with its essential façade, rises in a square that sweetly slopes against the sea.
In its close vicinities there is the cylindric merloned Saint Mary's Tower (Torre Santa Maria) which was restructured in the XVI century to prevent the frequent plunders of the Saracen pirates.
The parishional origin is the result of the gradual modification of the once Greek Temple of Athena Longatis or Parthenos Longatis that stood anciently on the steep reef. This cult was imported from a Boeotian region of Greece called Longas from where the first Hellenic settlers of this borough probably came.
Saint Mary of Lognina was already entitled this way in a few Vatican documents going back to 1308.Lognina is the dialectial version of Ognina that in Italian language has lost the initial "L" of the name.
In 1676 it was visited by the Sicilian historian Giovanni Andrea Massa who remained extremely impressed at the beauty of the building. After the earthquake of 1693 it was sobriously rebuilt on the same place but with a different orientation.
The Virgin Mary's Simulacre, venerated since 1600, was destroyed by a fire in 1885.For a period her image was exposed to the believers in the waxen features of a She-Child, the Madonna Bambina (the Child Madonna).Today's wooden statue was carved in 1889.
The Child Madonna is the Patroness of the Fishermen of Ognina where every year on September 8 a Processional Feast[18] betides on the sea involving lots of Catanians coming even from abroad.
Along Ognina's coastline are visible the spectacular natural Grottos of Ulysses (le Grotte d'Ulisse).
Ulysses and his companions landed in these precincts during the Sicilian scenes of the Odyssey when they will encounter and encave inside the cavern of Polyphemus.
Immediately after the blinding of the cyclops, the King of Ithaca and the survived few will flee from his fury reaching the nearby roadstead of Ognina.
Owing to this reason the charming seaway of the Gulf of Ognina (Golfo di Ognina) or "Porticciolo di Ognina" is still identified with the dual names of "Porto Ulisse" ( Port Ulysses ) or "Baia d'Ulisse" ( Ulysses' Bay ).
Our Lady of Montserrat • Chiesa di Santa Maria di Monserrato
Our Lady of Good Health • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute
Saint Mary of La Salette • Chiesa di Santa Maria de La Salette
Saint Mary of Mercy or Saint Mary of Merced • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Mercede
Saint Catherine at the Sandfield • Chiesa di Santa Caterina al Rinazzo
Our Lady of Concord • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concordia
Our Lady of the Guard • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Guardia
Our Lady of Consolation • Chiesa di Santa Maria della Consolazione
Most Holy Crucifix of Marjoram • Chiesa del Santissimo Crocifisso Maiorana.
This church was entitled this way, since prior to its construction in that very place there was a little devotional altar with a hand painted icon of the Crucifix. The anonymous pious author depictured the tablet obtaining a coloured substance from the leaves of the marjoram.
Crucifix of Miracles • Chiesa del Crocifisso dei Miracoli
Crucifix of Good Death •Chiesa del Crocifisso della Buona Morte
Our Lady of La Mecca •Chiesa di Santa Maria della Mecca.
La Mecca is not the Saudiarabian Holy City, but a vernacular Catanian word that identifies a "silk mill" that existed, in effect, in its vicinity.
Saint Cajetan at the Marina •Chiesa di San Gaetano alla Marina
Most Holy Redeemer • Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore
Saint Francis of Paola • Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola
Divine Maternity • Chiesa della Divina Maternità
Chapel of Mary Auxiliatrix • Cappella di Maria Ausiliatrice
Chapel of Sacred Heart of Jesus • Cappella del Sacro Cuore di Gesù
Sacred Heart by Redoubt • Sacro Cuore al Fortino (1898)
Saints George and Denis • Chiesa dei Santi Giorgio e Dionigi
Sacred Heart by Capuchins • Chiesa del Sacro Cuore ai Cappuccini
Saint Christopher • Chiesa di San Cristoforo
Saints Cosmas and Damian • Chiesa dei Santi Cosma e Damiano
Saint Mary of Succour or Saint Mary of the Palm • Chiesa di Santa Maria del Soccorso or Santa Maria della Palma.
The ancient presence of a palm (nowadays disappeared) in the nearby forechurch justifies its second name.
Saint Vitus • Chiesa di San Vito
Saints Guardian Angels • Chiesa dei Santi Angeli Custodi
Most Holy Saviour • Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore

Touristic Urban Spots

Catania:Stesichorus Square and Bellini's Monument (Piazza Stesicoro - Monumento a Vincenzo Bellini)
Piazza del Duomo • Cathedral's Square
Via Etnea • Etnean Street
Piazza Università • University Square
Piazza Stesicoro • Stesichorus Square
Via Vittorio Emanuele II
Via Giuseppe Garibaldi
Via Crociferi • Crucifers Street
Via Caronda
Viale Regina Margherita
La "Villa Bellini" or "Giardini Vincenzo Bellini" • the Vincenzo Bellini's Gardens, more commonly known as Villa Bellini, are the "Main Park" of the city)
Orto Botanico dell'Università di Catania • Catania's Botanical garden

Catania - Castello Ursino
The Ursino Castle (il Castello Ursino), built by emperor Frederick II in the 13th century.
Uzeda Gate • la Porta Uzeda
The Medieval Gothic-Catalan Arch of Saint John of Friars in Via Cestai • l'Arco Gotico-catalano di San Giovanni de' Freri in Via Cestai
Ferdinandean Gate or Garibaldi Gate (la Porta Ferdinandea or Porta Garibaldi), a triumphal arch erected in 1768 to celebrate the marriage of Ferdinand I of Two Sicilies and Marie Caroline of Austria
Redoubt's Gate • la Porta del Fortino
The House of the War-Mutilated built in fascist-style architecture (la Casa del Mutilato)
Catania War Cemetery, a Commonwealth Graveyard located in the southern country hamlet of Bicocca.

Education

Historical building of the University, in the city centre. Nowadays the different faculties are hosted in different buildings around town.
The University of Catania dates back to 1434 and it is the oldest university in Sicily. Its academic nicknames are: Siculorum Gymnasium and Siciliae Studium Generale. Nowadays it hosts 12 faculties and over 62,000 students, and it offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Catania hosts the Scuola Superiore, an academic institution linked to the University of Catania, aimed at the excellence in education. The Scuola Superiore di Catania offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs too. Apart from the University and the Scuola Superiore Catania is base of the prestigious Istituto Musicale Vincenzo Bellini an advanced institute of musical studies (Conservatory) and the Accademia di Belle Arti an advanced institute of artistic studies. Both institutions offer programs of university level for musical and artistic education.

Culture

Vincenzo Bellini

Giovanni Verga
The opera composer Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania, and a museum exists at his birthplace. The Teatro Massimo "Vincenzo Bellini", which opened in 1890, is named after the composer. The opera house presents a variety of operas through a season, which run from December to May, many of which are the work of Bellini.
Giovanni Verga was born in Catania in 1840. He became the greatest writer of Verismo, an Italian literary movement akin to Naturalism. His novels portray life among the lower levels of Sicilan society, such as fishermen and stone-masons, and were written in a mixture of both literary language and local dialect.
The city is base of the newspaper La Sicilia and of the TV-channel Antenna Sicilia also known as Sicilia Channel. Several others local television channels and free-press magazines have their headquarters in Catania. Noted Italian Tv host Pippo Baudo is from Catania.
In the late 1980s and during the 1990s Catania had a sparkling and unique popular music scene. Indie pop and indie rock bands, local radio station and dynamic independent music record labels sprung. As a result, in those years the city experienced a vital and effervescent cultural period. Artists like Carmen Consoli and Mario Venuti and international known indie rock bands like Uzeda came out of this cultural milieu.
The city is the home of Amatori Catania rugby union team, Calcio Catania football team and Orizzonte Catania, the latter being a brilliant women's water polo club, winning eight European Champions Cup titles from 1994 to 2008. Noted Italian basketball coach Ettore Messina is a native of Catania.
The city's patron saint is Saint Agatha, who is celebrated with a religious pageantry on 5 February every year.

Transportation
Catania has a commercial seaport (Catania seaport), an international airport (Catania Fontanarossa), a central train station (Catania Centrale) and it is a main node of the Sicilian motorway system.
The motorways serving Catania are the A18 Messina-Catania and the A19 Palermo-Catania; extensions of the A18 going from Catania to Syracuse and to Gela are currently under construction.
The Circumetnea is a small-gauge railway which runs for 110 km from Catania round the base of Mount Etna. It attains the height of 976 m above sea level before descending to rejoin the coast at Giarre-Riposto to the North.
In the late 1990s the first line of an underground railway (Metropolitana di Catania) was built. The underground service started in 1999 and it is currently active on a route of 3.8 km, from the station Borgo (North of town) to the seaport, passing through the stations of Giuffrida, Italia, Galatea, and Central Station. First line is planned to extend from the satellite city of Paternò to Fontanarossa Airport. Segments Borgo-Nesima (extending the underground railway from the station Borgo to the suburban area of Nesima) and Galatea-Stesicoro (extending the underground railway from the station Galatea to Piazza Stesicoro, in the heart of town) are currently under construction.

MAFIA SICILY

Based primaily in Sicily, the Sicilian Mafia formed in the mid-1800s to unify the Sicilian peasants against their enemies. In Sicily, the word Mafia tends to mean "manly" and a Mafioso considers himself a "Man of Honor." However, the organization is known as "Cosa Nostra" -- Our Thing -- or Our Affair. The Sicilian Mafia changed from a group of honorable Sicilian men to an organized criminal group in the 1920s. In the 1950s, Sicily experienced a massive building boom. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Sicilian Mafia gained control of the building contracts and made millions of dollars. Today, the Sicilian Mafia has evolved into an international organized crime group. Some experts estimate the Sicilian Mafia is the second largest organization in Italy, second only to the Fiat Corporation. The Sicilian Mafia specializes in heroin trafficking, political corruption and military arms trafficking and is the most powerful and most active Italian Organized Crime Group in the United States with estimates of more than 2,500 Sicilian Mafia affiliates located there. The Sicilian Mafia is also known to engage in arson, frauds, counterfeiting, and other racketeering crimes. The Sicilian Mafia is a dual organization. The "high Mafia" consists of lawyers, financiers, and professionals and seeks power and resources by bribing or pressuring politicians, judges and administrators. The "low Mafia" is the violent Mafia of thugs and bandits who threaten and kill to keep the victim population in line. Sometimes the two are hard to keep apart, but the two tendencies can always be distinguished. The Sicilian Mafia, high and low, is infamous for its aggressive assaults on Italian law enforcement officials. In Sicily the term "Excellent Cadaver" is used to distinguish the assassination of prominent government officials from the common criminals and ordinary citizens killed by the Mafia. Some of their high ranking victims include police commissioners, mayors, judges, police colonels and generals, and Parliament members. On May 23, 1992, the Sicilian Mafia struck Italian law enforcement with a vengeance. At approximately 6:00 p.m., Italian Magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three police body guards were killed by a massive bomb. Falcone, Director of Prosecutions (roughly, District Attorney) and for the court of Palermo and head of the special anti-Mafia investigative squad, had become the organization's most formidable enemy. His team was moving to prepare cases against most of the Mafia leadership. The bomb made a crater 30 feet in diameter in the road Falcone's caravan was traveling. This became known as the Capaci Massacre. Less than two months later, on July 19, 1992, the Mafia struck Falcone's replacement, Judge Paolo Borsellino, also in Palermo, Sicily. Borsellino and five bodyguards were killed outside the apartment of Borsellino's mother when a car packed with explosives was detonated by remote control as the judge approached the front door of his mother's apartment. In 1993 the authorities arrested Salvatore "Totó" Riina, believed at the time to be the capo dei capi and responsible directly or indirectly for scores if not hundreds of killings, after years of investigation which some believe was delayed by Mafia influence within the police and Carabinieri. After Riina's arrest control of the organization fell to Bernardo Provenzano who had come to reject Riina's strategy of war against the authorities in favor of a strategy of bribery, corruption and influence-peddling. As a consequence the rate of Mafia killings fell sharply but Mafia influence not only in the international drug and white slavery (prostitution) trade but locally in construction and public contracts in Sicily continued. Provenzano was himself captured in 2006 after being wanted for 43 years.

PALERMO SICILY

Palermo (Sicilian: Palermu, Greek: Panormus) is a historic city in southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the north-west of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The city was founded by the Phoenicians, but named by the Ancient Greeks as Panormus meaning all port. Palermo became part of the Roman Republic and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. For a brief period it was under Arab rule where it first became a capital. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo would become capital of a new kingdom from 1130 to 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually it would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.
The metropolitan area of Palermo is the fifth most populated in Italy and in the top eighty of the largest in all of Europe with around 1.2 million people. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 670 thousand people, the inhabitants are known as Palermitans or poetically panormiti, the language spoken by its inhabitants is the Sicilian language.
The religion of Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitan culture, the patron saint of the city is Saint Rosalia, her feast day on July 15 is perhaps the biggest social event in the city. The area attracts significant amounts of tourists each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish market at the heart of Palermo known as the Vucciria.

History
Evidence for human settlement in the area now known as Palermo goes back to the Pleistocene Epoch, around 8000 BC. This evidence is present in the form of cave drawings at nearby Addaura crafted by the Sicani, who according to Thucydides arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia). During 734 BC the Phoenicians, a sea trading peoples from the north of ancient Canaan built a small settlement on the natural habour of Palermo, some sources suggest they named the settlement Zîz. The Greeks who were the most dominant culture on the island of Sicily, due to the powerful city state of Syracuse to the east, instead called the settlement Panormus. Its Greek name means "all-port" and it was named as so because of its fine natural harbour. Palermo was then passed on to the Phoenician's descendants and successors, in the form of the Carthaginians. During this period it was a centre of commerce; however a power struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians broke out in the form of the Sicilian Wars, causing unrest. It was from Palermo that Hamilcar's fleet which was defeated at the Battle of Himera was launched. Palermo eventually became a Greek colony when Pyrrhus of Epirus gained it during the Pyrrhic War period in 276 BC. However as the Romans flooded into Sicily during the First Punic War, the city became under Roman rule only three decades later. The Romans made sure that, in the words of Roman consul M. Valerian to the Roman Senate; "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily". This period was quite a calm time for Palermo, which was growing into an important Roman trade centre, also during this period Christianity first began to be practiced in Palermo.

The Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire was falling apart, Palermo fell under the control of several Germanic tribes; first were the Vandals in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric. The Vandals had already invaded other parts of western Europe establishing themselves as a significant force. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to another East Germanic tribe in the form of the Goths. The Ostrogothic conquest under Theodoric the Great began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic, Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government instead. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under general Belisarius who was commissioned by Eastern Emperor Justinian I who solidified his rule in the following years. After the Byzantines were betrayed by admiral Euphemius, who fled to Tunisia and begged the Aghlabid leader Ziyadat Allah to help him there was a Muslim conquest of Sicily, putting in place the Emirate of Sicily. The Arab rulers allowed the natives freedom of religion on the condition that they paid a tax. Although their rule was short in time, it was then that Palermo displaced Syracuse as the prime city of Sicily; it was said to have competed with Córdoba and Cairo in terms of importance and splendor. The Arabs also introduced many agricultural items which remain a mainstay of Sicilian cuisine. After dynasty related quarrels however, there was a Christian reconquest in the form of the Normans from the Duchy of Normandy, descendants of the Vikings. Palermo was back under Christian rule by 1072 thanks to Robert Guiscard of the House of Hauteville. It was under Roger II of Sicily that his holdings of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula were promoted into the Kingdom of Sicily; the kingdom was ruled from Palermo as its capital, with the king's court held at Palazzo dei Normanni. Much construction was undertaken during this period, such as the building of the Palermo Cathedral. The Kingdom of Sicily became one of the wealthiest states in Europe, as wealthy as fellow Norman state the Kingdom of England. Sicily in 1194 fell under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. Palermo was the preferred city of the Emperor Frederick II. Muslims of Palermo were migrated and expelled during Holy Roman rule. After an interval of Angevin rule (1266-1282), Sicily came under the house of Aragon and later, in (1479), the kingdom of Spain until 1713 and between 1717–1718. Palerrmo also managed by Savoy between 1713–1717 and 1718-1720 and Austria between 1720-1734.

Two Sicilies and Italian unification
Sicily's unification (1734) with the Bourbon-ruled kingdom of Naples as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies inflicted a devastating blow on the elite of Palermo, as the city was reduced to just another provincial city, the royal court residing in Naples. Palermo rebelled in 1848 and held out against the Neapolitan crown until May 1849.
The Italian Risorgimento and Sicily's annexation (1860) to the kingdom of Italy gave Palermo a second chance. It was once again the administrative centre of Sicily, and there was a certain economic and industrial development. In the second half of the 19th century Palermo expanded beyond the historical centre, especially towards Via della Libertá. Monumental public buildings were erected and a new thoroughfare was cut into the dense old town, called Via Roma. The city was one of the main centres of Art Nouveau style in Italy.
Palermo survived almost the entire fascist period unscathed, but during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 it suffered heavy damage.
The importance of Palermo got another boost when Sicily became (1947) an autonomous region with extended self-rule. But any improvement was thwarted by the rising power of the Mafia, which still today is a dramatic feature of the city, as well as the whole Southern Italy.

Main sights
Palermo has a noteworthy architectural heritage and is notable for its many Norman buildings.

Churches
The Cathedral of Palermo (1185).
San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi (1071)
San Giovanni degli Eremiti (1132)
Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiragliato, 1143)
San Cataldo (12th century)
Santa Maria della Gancia
Santa Maria della Catena
San Giuseppe dei Teatini
Oratorio di San Lorenzo
Oratorio del Rosario
Santa Teresa alla Kalsa derives its name from Al-Khalisa, an arab term meaning elected. The church, constructed in 1686–1706 over the former emir's residence, is one of the most outstanding examples of Sicilian Baroque. It has a single, airy nave, with stucco decorations from the early 18th century.
Santa Maria dello Spasimo was built in 1506 and later turned into a hospital. For this temple Raphael painted his famous Sicilia's Spasimo, now in the Museo del Prado of Madrid. The church today is a fascinating air-open ruin, which occasionally houses exhibitions and musical shows.
the Church of the Jesus (Chiesa del Gesù) was built by the Jesuits in the centre of the city from 1564, over a pre-existing convent of Basilian monks. The edifice was further enlarged starting from 1591, becoming one of the most relevant examples of Sicilian Baroque, though retaining some severe late Renaissance fashion. The church was heavily damaged after the 1943 bombings, which destroyed most of the frescoes. The interior has a Latin cross plan with a nave and two aisles, characterized by a particularly rich decoration of marbles, tarsias and stuccoes, especially in the St. Anne chapel. At the right is the Casa Professa, with a 1685 portal and a precious 18th century cloister. The Church of the Jesus is home to the Municipal Library, placede here in 1775.
The church of St. Francis of Assisi, erected in what was once the market district of the city. It was built between 1255 and 1277 in the site of two pre-existing churches, and was largely renovated in the 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, the latter after an earthquake. After the 1943 bombings, the church was restored to its Mediaeval appearance, which now includes part of the original building such as part of the right side, the apses and the Gothic portal in the façade. The interior has a typical Gothic flavour, with a nave and two aisles separated by two rows of cylindrical pilasters. Some of the chapels are in Renaissance style, as well as the late 16th century side portals. The church includes precious sculptures by Antonio and Giacomo Gagini, and Francesco Laurana, plus a noteworthy wooden choir dating from the 16th century. Of note are also the allegorical statues by Giacomo Serpotta (1723), also author of the stucco decoration.
The church of the Magione (officially church of the Holy Trinity), an ancient example of Norman architecture. The church was founded in 1191 by Matteo d'Ajello, who donated it to the Cistercian monks.

Palaces and museums
Palazzo dei Normanni, one of the most beautiful Italian palaces and a notable example of Norman architecture, probably built over an Arab fortress. It houses the famous Cappella Palatina.
Zisa (1160) and Cuba, magnificent castles/houses used by the kings of Palermo for hunting. Similar buildings were common in northern Africa, but today these two are the only ones remaining. The Zisa houses the Islamic museum. The Cuba was once encircled by water.
Palazzo Chiaramonte
Palazzo Abatellis, with the Regional Gallery. It was built at the end of the 15th century for the prefect of the city, Francesco Abatellis. It is a lassive though elegant construction, in typical Catalan Gothic style, with Renaissance influences. The Gallery houses an Elenora of Aragon bust by Francesco Laurana (1471) and the Malvagna Triptych (c. 1510), by Jan Gossaert and the famous Annunziata by Antonello da Messina. The exposition in the museum has been designed by the famous architect Carlo Scarpa.
The Museo Archeologico Regionale is one the main museums of Italy: it includes numerous remains from Etruscan, Carthaginian, Roman and Hellenistic civilizations. It houses all the decorative parts from the Sicilian temples of Segesta and Selinunte.

Opera Houses
The Teatro Massimo ("Greatest Theatre") was opened in 1897. Closed for renovation from 1974 until 1997, it is now carefully restored and has an active schedule. Enrico Caruso sang in a performance of La Gioconda during the opening season, returning for Rigoletto at the very end of his career. It is the largest theater in Italy (8000 sm).
The Teatro Politeama was built between 1867 and 1874. Nowadays, the town's Gallery of Modern Art is accommodated here.

Squares
Quattro Canti is a small square at the crossing of the ancient main roads (now: Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda) dividing the town into its quarters ('mandamenti'). The buildings at the corner have diagonal baroque facades so that the square gets an almost octagonal form.
Piazza Pretoria was planned in the 16th century near the Quattro Canti as the site of a fountain by Francesco Camilliani, the Fontana Pretoria.

Other sights
The Cathedral has a heliometer (solar "observatory") of 1690, one of a number[17] built in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The device itself is quite simple: a tiny hole in one of the minor domes acts as Pinhole camera, projecting an image of the sun onto the floor at solar noon (12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer). There is a bronze line, la Meridiana on the floor, running precisely N/S. The ends of the line mark the positions as at the summer and winter solstices; signs of the zodiac show the various other dates throughout the year.
The purpose of the instrument was to standardise the measurement of time and the calendar. The convention in Sicily had been that the (24 hour) day was measured from the moment of sun-rise, which of course meant that no two locations had the same time and, more importantly, did not have the same time as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was also important to know when the Vernal Equinox occurred, to provide the correct date for Easter.
The Orto botanico di Palermo, founded in 1785, is the largest in Italy with a surface of 10 ha.
One site of interest is the Capuchin Catacombs, with many mummified corpses in varying degrees of preservation.
Close to the city is 600-metre (1,970 ft) high Monte Pellegrino, with spectacular views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the ocean. .

Demographics
In 2007, there were 666,552 people residing in Palermo (in which 1 million live in the greater Palermo area), located in the province of Palermo, Sicily, of whom 47.6% were male and 52.4% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 21.64 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 16.54 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Palermo resident is 37 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Palermo declined by 2.92 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent. The reason for Palermo's decline is a population flight to the suburbs, and Northern Italy.[1][2] The current birth rate of Palermo is 10.75 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.
As of 2006, 97.79% of the population was of Sicilian/Italian descent. The largest immigrant group came from South Asia (mostly from Sri Lanka): 0.80%, other European countries (mostly from Serbia and Poland): 0.3%, and North Africa (mostly from Tunisia): 0.28%.[18]

Sports
Palermo has its own football team, U.S. Città di Palermo, playing in Italian Serie A and in UEFA Cup first round of the 2007–2008 season. The chairman is Maurizio Zamparini and the coach is Stefano Colantuono. The Targa Florio was an open road endurance car race held near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it used to be one of the oldest sports car racing events until it was discontinued in 1977 due to safety concerns but has since run as a rallying event.
Palermo was home to the grand depart of the 2008 Giro d'Italia. The initial stage was a 28.5 km long TTT (Team Time Trial) held on May 10th.
Internazionali Femminili di Palermo is a WTA Tour Tier IV tournament in Palermo.

Patron saints

The patron saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia, who is still widely venerated. On the 14th of July, people in Palermo celebrate the "Festino", which is the most important religious event of the year. The Festino is a procession in the main street of Palermo to remember the miracle attributed to Santa Rosalia who, it is believed, freed the city from the Black Death in 1624. The cave where the bones of Santa Rosalia were discovered is on Monte Pellegrino (see above): when her relics were carried around the city three times, the plague was lifted. There is a Santuario marking the spot and can be reached via a scenic bus ride from the city below.
Before 1624 Palermo had four patron saints, one for each of the four major parts of the city. They were Saint Agatha, Saint Christina, Saint Ninfa and Saint Olivia.
Saint Lucy is also honoured with a peculiar celebration, during which inhabitants of Palermo do not eat anything made with flour, but boil wheat in its natural state and use it to prepare a special dish called cuccìa. This commemorates the saving of the city from famine through the intercession of St Lucia. A ship full of grain mysteriously arrived in the city's harbour and the population was so hungry that they did not waste time in making flour but ate the grain as it had arrived.

Transport
Palermo International Airport, also known as Falcone-Borsellino Airport, Punta Raisi Airport: dedicated to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two anti-mafia judges killed by the mafia in early 1990s, is located 32 km (19 miles) west of Palermo (Punta Raisi).
The airport can also be reached by trains departing from Centrale, Notarbartolo and Francia stations.

PIAZZA ARMERINA SICILY

Villa Romana del Casale is a Roman villa located about 5km outside the town of Piazza Armerina, Sicily. It contains the richest, largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Villa was constructed (on the remains of an older villa) in the first quarter of the fourth century A.D., probably as the center of a huge latifundium covering the entire surrounding area. How long the villa kept this role is not known, maybe for less that 150 years, but the complex remained inhabited and a village grew around it, named Platia, derived from the word palatium (palace). It was damaged, maybe destroyed during the domination of the Vandals and the Visigoths, but the buildings remained in use, at least in part, during the Byzantine and Arab period. The site was finally abandoned for good when a landslide covered the villa in the 12th century AD, and remaining inhabitants moved to the current location of Piazza Armerina.
The existence of the villa was almost entirely forgotten (some of the tallest parts have always been above ground) and the area used for cultivation. Pieces of mosaics and some columns were found early in the 19th century, and some excavations were carried out later in that century, but the first serious excavations were performed by Paolo Orsi in 1929, and later by Giuseppe Cultrera in 1935-39. The latest major excavations were in the period 1950-60 by Gino Vinicio Gentili after which the current cover was built. A few very localized excavations have been performed in the 1970s by Andrea Carandini.
In late antiquity most of the Sicilian hinterland was partitioned into huge agricultural estates called "latifundia" (sing. "latifundium"). The size of the villa and the amount and quality of its artwork indicate that it was the center of such a latifundium, whose owner was probably a member of senatorial class if not of the imperial family itself, i.e., the absolute upper class of the Roman Empire.
The villa evidently served several purposes. It contained some rooms that were clearly residential, others that certainly had official purposes, and a number of rooms of as yet unknown intended use, though they were definitely not built for commercial or production reasons. The villa would probably have been the permanent or semi-permanent residence of the owner; it would have been where the owner, in his role as patron, received his local clients; and it would have functioned as the administrative center of the latifundium.
Currently, only the manorial portions of the complex have been excavated. The ancillary structures - housing for the slaves, workshops, stables, etc. have not yet been located.
The villa was a single-story building, centered on the peristyle, around which almost all the main public and private rooms were organized. Entrance to the peristyle is via the atrium from the west, with the thermal baths to the northwest; service rooms and probably guest rooms to the north; private apartments and a huge basilica to the east; and rooms of unknown purpose to the south. Somewhat detached, almost as an afterthought, is the separate area to the south. containing the elliptical peristyle, service rooms, and a huge triclinium. The overall plan of the villa was dictated by several factors: older constructions on the site, the slight slope on which it is built, and the passage of the sun and the prevailing winds. The higher ground to the east is occupied by the Great Basilica, the private apartments, and the Corridor of the Great Hunt, the middle ground by the Peristyle, guest rooms, the entrance area, the Elliptical Peristyle, and the triclinium, while the lower ground to the west is dedicated to the thermal baths.
The whole complex is somewhat unusual, as it is organized along three major axes; the primary axis is the (slightly bent) line that passes from the atrium, tablinum, peristyle and the great basilica (coinciding with the path visitors would follow), while the thermal baths and the elliptical peristyle with the triclinium are centered on separate axes. In spite of the different orientations of the various parts of the villa they all form a single structure, built simultaneously. There is no indication that the villa was constructed in several stages.
Little is known about the earlier villa, but it appears to have been just a large country residence, probably built around the beginning of the second century.

SELINUNTE SICILY

Selinunte (Greek: Σελινοῦς; Latin: Selinus) is an ancient Greek archaeological site situated on the south coast of Sicily between the valleys of the rivers Belice and Modione in the province of Trapani.
The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only temple E, the so-called "Temple of Hera" has been re-erected.

History
Selinus was one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Sicily, situated on the southwest coast of that island, at the mouth of the small river of the same name, and 6.5 km west of that of the Hypsas (the modern Belice River). It was founded, as we learn from Thucydides, by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara, or Megara Hyblaea, under the conduct of a leader named Pammilus, about 100 years after the settlement of that city, with the addition of a fresh body of colonists from the parent city of Megara in Greece. (Thuc. vi. 4, vii. 57; Scymn. Ch. 292; Strabo vi. p. 272.) The date of its foundation cannot be precisely fixed, as Thucydides indicates it only by reference to that of the Sicilian Megara, which is itself not accurately known, but it may be placed about 628 BCE. Diodorus indeed would place it 22 years earlier, or 650 BCE, and Hieronymus still further back, 654 BCE; but the date given by Thucydides, which is probably entitled to the most confidence, is incompatible with this earlier epoch. (Thuc. vi. 4; Diod. xiii. 59; Hieron. Chron. ad ann. 1362; Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 208.) The name is supposed to have been derived from the quantities of wild parsley (σελινὸς) which grew on the spot; and for the same reason a leaf of this parsley was adopted as the symbol of their coins.
Selinus was the most westerly of the Greek colonies in Sicily, and for this reason was early brought into contact and collision with the Carthaginians and the native Sicilians in the west and northwest of the island. The former people, however, do not at first seem to have offered any obstacle to their progress; but as early as 580 BCE we find the Selinuntines engaged in hostilities with the people of Segesta (a non-Hellenic city), whose territory bordered on their own. (Diod. v. 9). The arrival of a body of emigrants from Rhodes and Cnidus who subsequently founded Lipara, and who lent their assistance to the Segestans, for a time secured the victory to that people; but disputes and hostilities seem to have been of frequent occurrence between the two cities, aud it is probable that in 454 BCE, when Diodorus speaks of the Segestans as being at war with the Lilybaeans (modern Marsala) (xi. 86), that the Selinuntines are the people really meant. The river Mazarus, which at that time appears to have formed the boundary between the two states, was only about 25 km west of Selinus; and it is certain that at a somewhat later period the territory of Selinus extended to its banks, and that that city had a fort and emporium at its mouth. (Diod. xiii. 54.) On the other side its territory certainly extended as far as the Halycus (modern Platani), at the mouth of which it had founded the colony of Minoa, or Heracleia, as it was afterwards termed. (Herod. v. 46.) It is evident, therefore, that Selinus had early attained to great power and prosperity; but we have very little information as to its history. We learn, however, that, like most of the Sicilian cities, it had passed from an oligarchy to a despotism, and about 510 BCE was subject to a despot named Peithagoras, from whom the citizens were freed by the assistance of the Spartan Euryleon, one of the companions of Dorieus: and thereupon Euryleon himself, for a short time, seized on the vacant sovereignty, but was speedily overthrown and put to death by the Selinuntines. (Herod. v. 46.) We are ignorant of the causes which led the Selinuntines to abandon the cause of the other Greeks, and take part with the Carthaginians during the great expedition of Hamilcar, 480 BCE; but we learn that they had even promised to send a contingent to the Carthaginian army, which, however did not arrive till after its defeat. (Diod. xi. 21, xiii. 55.) The Selinuntines are next mentioned in 466 BCE, as co-operating with the other free cities of Sicily in assisting the Syracusans to expel Thrasybulus (Id. xi. 68); and there is every reason to suppose that they fully shared in the prosperity of the half century that followed, a period of tranquillity and opulence for most of the Greek cities in Sicily. Thucydides speaks of Selinus just before the Athenian expedition as a powerful and wealthy city, possessing great resources for war both by land and sea, and having large stores of wealth accumulated in its temples. (Thuc. vi. 20.) Diodorus also represents it at the time of the Carthaginian invasion, as having enjoyed a long period of tranquillity, and possessing a numerous population. (Diod. xiii. 55.)
In 416 BCE, a renewal of the old disputes between Selinus and Segesta became the occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily. The Selinuntines were the first to call in the powerful aid of Syracuse, and thus for a time obtained the complete advantage over their enemies, whom they were able to blockade both by sea and land; but in this extremity the Segestans had recourse to the assistance of Athens. (Thuc. vi. 6; Diod. xii. 82.) Though the Athenians do not appear to have taken any measures for the immediate relief of Segesta, it is probable that the Selinuntines and Syracusans withdrew their forces at once, as we hear no more of their operations against Segesta. Nor does Selinus bear any important part in the war of which it was the immediate occasion. Nicias indeed proposed, when the expedition first arrived in Sicily (415 BCE); that they should proceed at once to Selinus and compel that city to submit on moderate terms (Thuc. vi. 47); but this advice being overruled, the efforts of the armament were directed against Syracuse, and the Selinuntines in consequence bore but a secondary part in the subsequent operations. They are, however, mentioned on several occasions as furnishing auxiliaries to the Syracusans; and it was at Selinus that the large Peloponnesian force sent to the support of Gylippus landed in the spring of 413 BCE, having been driven over to the coast of Africa by a tempest. (Thuc. vii. 50, 58; Diod. xiii. 12.)
The defeat of the Athenian armament left the Segestans apparently at the mercy of their rivals; they in vain attempted to disarm the hostility of the Selinuntines by ceding without further contest the frontier district which had been the original subject of dispute. But the Selinuntines were not satisfied with this concession, and continued to press them with fresh aggressions, for protection against which they sought assistance from Carthage. This was, after some hesitation, accorded them, and a small force sent over at once, with the assistance of which the Segestans were able to defeat the Selinuntines in a battle. (Diod. xiii. 43, 44.) But not content with this, the Carthaginians in the following spring (409 BCE) sent over a vast army amounting, according to the lowest estimate, to 100,000 men, with which Hannibal Mago (the grandson of Hamilcar that was killed at Himera) landed at Lilybaeum, and from thence marched direct to Selinus. The Selinuntines were wholly unprepared to resist such a force; so little indeed had they expected it that the fortifications of their city were in many places out of repair, and the auxiliary force which had been promised by Syracuse as well as by Agrigentum (modern Agrigento) and Gela, was not yet ready, and did not arrive in time. The Selinuntines, indeed, defended themselves with the courage of despair, and even after the walls were carried, continued the contest from house to house; but the overwhelming numbers of the enemy rendered all resistance hopeless; and after a siege of only ten days the city was taken, and the greater part of the defenders put to the sword. Of the citizens of Selinus we are told that 16,000 were slain, 5,000 made prisoners, and 2,600 under the command of Empedion escaped to Agrigentum. (Diod. xiii. 54-59.) Shortly after Hannibal destroyed the walls of the city, but gave permission to the surviving inhabitants to return and occupy it, as tributaries of Carthage, an arrangement which was confirmed by the treaty subsequently concluded between Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, and the Carthaginians, in 405 BCE. (Id. xiii. 59, 114.) In the interval a considerable number of the survivors and fugitives had been brought together by Hermocrates, and established within its walls. (Id. 63.) There can be no doubt that a considerable part of the citizens of Selinus availed themselves of this permission, and that the city continued to subsist under the Carthaginian dominion; but a fatal blow had been given to its prosperity, which it undoubtedly never recovered.
The Selinuntines are again mentioned in 397 BCE as declaring in favour of Dionysius during his war with Carthage (Diod. xiv. 47); but both the city and territory were again given up to the Carthaginians by the peace of 383 BCE (Id. xv. 17); and though Dionysius recovered possession of it by arms shortly before his death (Id. xv. 73), it is probable that it soon again lapsed under the dominion of Carthage. The Halycus, which was established as the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily by the treaty of 383 BCE, seems to have generally continued to be so recognised, notwithstanding temporary interruptions; and was again fixed as their limit by the treaty with Agathocles in 314 BCE. (Id. xix. 71.) This last treaty expressly stipulated that Selinus, as well as Heracleia and Himera, should continue subject to Carthage, as before. In 276 BCE, however, during the expedition of Pyrrhus to Sicily, the Selinuntines voluntarily submitted to that monarch, after the capture of Heracleia. (Id. xxii. 10. Exc. H. p. 498.) During the First Punic War we again find Selinus subject to Carthage, and its territory was repeatedly the theater of military operations between the contending powers. (Id. xxiii. 1, 21; Pol. i. 39.) But before the close of the war (about 250 BCE), when the Carthaginians were beginning to contract their operations, and confine themselves to the defence of as few points as possible, they removed all the inhabitants of Selinus to Lilybaeum and destroyed the city. (Diod. xxiv. 1. Exc. H. p. 506.)
It seems certain that it was never rebuilt. Pliny indeed, mentions its name (Selinus oppidum, iii. 8. s. 14), as if it still existed as a town in his time, but Strabo distinctly classes it with the cities which were wholly extinct; and Ptolemy, though he mentions the river Selinus, has no notice of a town of the name. (Strab. vi. p. 272; Ptol. iii. 4. § 5.) The Thermae Selinuntiae (at modern Sciacca), which derived their name from the ancient city, and seem to have been much frequented in the time of the Romans, were situated at a considerable distance, 30 km, from Selinus: they are sulphureous springs, still much valued for their medical properties, and dedicated, like most thermal waters in Sicily, to San Calogero. At a later period they were called the Aquae Labodes or Larodes, under which name they appear in the Itineraries. (Itin. Ant. p. 89; Tab. Peut.)

Modern situation and ruins
By the 19th century, the site of the ancient city was wholly desolate, with the exception of a solitary guardhouse, and the ground for the most part thickly overgrown with shrubs and low brushwood; but the remains of the walls could be distinctly traced throughout a great part of their circuit. They occupied the summit of a low hill, directly abutting on the sea, and bounded on the west by the marshy valley through which flows the river Madiuni, the ancient Selinus; on the east by a smaller valley or depression, also traversed by a small marshy stream, which separates it from a hill of similar character, where the remains of the principal temples are still visible. The space enclosed by the existing walls is of small extent, so that it is probable the city in the days of its greatness must have covered a considerable area without them: and it has been supposed by some writers that the present line of walls is that erected by Hermocrates when he restored the city after its destruction by the Carthaginians. (Diod. xiii. 63.) No trace is, however, found of a more extensive circuit, though the remains of two lines of wall, evidently connected with the port, are found in the small valley east of the city. Within the area surrounded by the walls are the remains of three temples, all of the Doric order, and of an ancient style; none of them were standing until the temple designated "Temple E" was re-erected in the 20th century, but the foundations of them all remain, together with numerous portions of columns and other architectural fragments, sufficient to enable one to restore the plan and design of all three without difficulty. The largest of them is 70 m long by 25 m broad, and has 6 columns in front and 18 in length, a very unusual proportion. All these are hexastyle and peripteral. Besides these three temples there is a small temple or Aedicula, of a different plan, but also of the Doric order. No other remains of buildings, beyond mere fragments and foundations, can be traced within the walls; but the outlines of two large edifices, built of squared stones and in a massive style, are distinctly traceable outside the walls, near the northeast and northwest angles of the city, though their nature or purpose is unclear.
But much the most remarkable of the ruins at Selinus are those of three temples on the hill to the east, which do not appear to have been included in the city, but, as was often the case, were built on this neighbouring eminence, so as to front the city itself. All these temples are considerably larger than any of the three above described; and the most northerly of them is one of the largest of which we have any remains. It had 8 columns in front and 17 in the sides, and was of the kind called pseudo-dipteral. Its length was 110 m, and its breadth 55 m, so that it was actually longer than the great Temple of Olympian Zeus at Agrigentum, though not equal to it in breadth. From the columns being only partially fluted, as well as from other signs, it is clear that it never was completed; but all the more important parts of the structure were finished, and it must have certainly been one of the most imposing fabrics in antiquity. Only three of the columns are now standing, and these imperfect; but the whole area is filled up with a heap of fallen masses, portions of columns, capitals, and other huge architectural fragments, all of the most massive character, and forming, as observed by Swinburne, one of the most gigantic and sublime ruins imaginable. The two other temples are also prostrate, but the ruins have fallen with such regularity that the portions of almost every column lie on the ground as they have fallen; and it is not only easy to restore the plan and design of the two edifices, but it appears as if they could be rebuilt with little difficulty. These temples, though greatly inferior to their gigantic neighbour, were still larger than that at Segesta, and even exceed the great temple of Neptune at Paestum; so that the three, when standing, must have presented a spectacle unrivalled in antiquity. All these buildings may be safely referred to a period anterior to the Carthaginian conquest (409 BCE), though the three temples last described appear to have been all of them of later date than those within the walls of the city. This is proved, among other circumstances, by the sculptured metopes, several of which have been discovered and extricated from among the fallen fragments. Of these sculptures, those which belonged to the temples within the walls, present a very peculiar and archaic style of art, and are universally recognised as among the earliest extant specimens of Greek sculpture. (They are figured by Müller, Denkmäler, pl. 4, 5, as well as in many other works, and casts of them are in the British Museum.) Those, on the contrary, which have been found among the ruins of the temple on the opposite hill, are of a later and more advanced style, though still retaining considerable remains of the stiffness of the earliest art. Besides the interest attached to these Selinuntine metopes from their important bearing on the history of Greek sculpture, the remains of these temples are of value as affording the most unequivocal testimony to the use of painting, both for the architectural decoration of the temples, and as applied to the sculptures with which they were adorned. A very full and detailed account of the ruins at Selinus is given in the Duke of Serra di Falco's Antichità Siciliane, vol. ii., which contains a detailed plan of the site. A more general description of them will be found in Swinburne's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 242-45; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 219-21; and other works on Sicily in general. A plan is also presented in Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.

Coinage
The coins of Selinus are numerous and various. The earliest, as already mentioned, bear merely the figure of a parsley-leaf on the obverse. Those of somewhat later date represent a figure sacrificing on an altar, which is consecrated to Aesculapius, as indicated by a cock which stands below it. The subject of this type evidently refers to a story related by Diogenes Laertius (viii. 2. § 11) that the Selinuntines were afflicted with a pestilence from the marshy character of the lands adjoining the neighboring river, but that this was cured by works of drainage, suggested by Empedocles. A figure standing on some coins is the river-god Selinus, which was thus made conducive to the salubrity of the city.