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Somewhere in between Messina and Syracuse, Sicily presents one of its main characters. The second largest city on the island is called Catania and it is no ordinary Sicilian corner.

The name is the beneficiary of a collection of translations that basically sum up characteristics of the location. In the Siculian culture, the word “Katane” translates into “grater flaying knife” joined by “sharp stones” or “rough soil”. The Latin interpretation offers a new perspective over the word “Catinus” which means “a gulf, a bay” and “a vessel, a trough”. Due to the natural diversity, both translations remain valid.

The Saracenic era created a new name with a new interpretation. Balad-Al-Fil and Medinat-Al-Fil represent the Arabic appellatives of Catania. What they mean is “The County of the Elephant” and “The City of the Elephant”. The names refer to an elephant that is illustrated by a statue that in those days must have been the local totem. In times from long ago, the elephant represented a genuine talisman for Catania. The Museum of Mineralogy, Paleonthology and Vulcanology actually hosts a wonderful paleontological remnant, the integral skeleton of an elephas falconeri, magnificently well preserved.

Catania is a permanent potential victim of insidious Etna which overshadows the area. Still, Etna isn’t only a beautiful danger of nature but it also created a fertile soil over time, due to its ashes. This helped inhabitants quite a lot as they became specialists in wine-production. The serial eruptions consequently decimated the city rebuilt over and over again. Layers of the soil present proof of Roman and Greek times, and who knows what further diggings reserve.

Contemporary Catania enjoys a large Metropolitan area formed of the core of the area, Commune of Catania and 26 surrounding communes. All together it gathers 752 895 inhabitants, a number that lists Catania on the second place in top of the largest Sicilian cities. Catania presents itself as a kingdom of architectural diversity of great complexity that requires close attention in order to not leave out key details. A large range of theatres, basilicas, palaces and many other types of extraordinary ancient edifices are conserved in this corner of Sicily. The Odeon (3rd century CE), the Amphitheatre ( 2nd century), ruins of the Roman Apeduct, churches, some Catacombs and Roman columns adorn wide streets and private corners of Catania.

The 18th century represented an intense architectural period as most of the streets and palaces were built in this time. It turned out to be a controversial century due to Catania’s power of attraction of families from other parts of Sicily. The emerging 18th century rivalry between Catania and Palermo is still active, although it is now covered with a certain subtlety.

The Baroque legacy is extraordinary and worthy of close studying. Saint Agatha’s Cathedral, Saint Agatha’s Abbey, Church Saint Joseph, Church Saint Martin of the White Garbs, Saint Agatha the Eldest, Saint Prison’s Church (Saint Agatha in Jail), Great Abbey and Little Abbey of Benedictine Nuns’ Cloister gather a rather insignificant number of Baroque offerings. Catania is covered with buildings, palaces, mansions, beautiful squares and wide streets that define a colossal Baroque collection which imminently became part of the UNESCO World Heritage community.

On the overwhelming architecture, it can be widely talked. But words can’t sum it up. They can only provoke deeper search and personal inquiries of the Baroque marvels that Catania shelters.