CATANIA, k:1-iii'm-ft (Gk. Knnitqi, Kntane, Lat. Catnna). An episcopal city and seaport en the east coast of Sicily. at the southeast base of Mount Etna, 59 miles south-southwest of Messina and 5 miles west-northwest of Syra cuse (Map: Italy. K 10). It is the capital of the Province of Catania, and the third largest city in Sicily. being outranked in population by Palermo and Messina. In front of the cathedral is a fountain, with an ancient statue of an ele phant, made of lava, bearing an Egyptian granite obelisk. In the cathedral, begun by Roger I. in 1091 with materials taken mostly from the ancient theatre, and of the original of which little besides the choir has been spared by earthquakes, is the chapel of Agatha, tutelary saint of Catania, who was put to death in 251, and whose festival is magnificently celebrated in February. In the cathedral also is the monu ment of the composer Bellini, a native of Cata nia. The Villa Bellini has an attractive garden, containing busts of Bellini and others, and a statue of Mazzini.
In summer Catania is hotter than Palermo, but in winter it is cooler, on account of the snow on Mount Etna. The city formerly had epidemics of cholera. but the sanitary conditions are now excellent and the water-supply is good. The lack of promenades and gardens renders Catania less attractive to tourists than most Italian cities, although the streets are so broad and well kept, the private and public buildings so large and well built, and the situation so attractive, that it is commonly called 'la Bella.' The chief attraction is Mount Etna, which may he seen to a good ad vantage from the tower of San Nicola and from the Villa Bellini.
The remains of the ancient theatre, being mostly under ground, can be inspected by torchlight only. The E0111:111 structure was erected on the foundation of the Creek edifice, whirl' is perhaps the one in which Aleildades's eloquence, in B.C. 415, induced the Catanians to ally themselves with Athens against Syracuse. Another ancient Roman structure is the adjacent Church of Santa Maria llotonda. The Itenedictine monastery of San Simla. formerly one of the most beautiful in Europe, was destroyed by an earthquake in 169:3 and rebuilt by 17:35. The institution was sup pressed in 1S66. The building has since been used for military and purposes. Its grand baroque church contains a famous organ by Do nato del Piano, with 5 keyboards, 72 stops. and 2916 pipes: the museum contains antiquities in pottery. bronze. and marble, meth:rya] armor, and natnral-history specimens: the library contains 20,000 volumes and 30U is assoc•ia ted with that the Carmelite Church all' Indirizzo is an ancient Roman bath almost completely preserved, and not far from it is a spring probably fed by the underground Amenanus, that emerges just be fore emptying into the harbor. The university
(founded in 1444) has about 1000 students (fo• welly over 2000), a school of pharmacy, a library of over 90.000 volumes (founded in 1755). and a fine collection of shells. The Academy of Nat ural Sciences (founded in 1523) has always been active in promoting tile investigations of naturalists in Sicily.
The surrounding country, on account of its fertility, has been called the 'granary of Sicily.' and produces grain, hemp. flax, silk, cotton, wool, licorice. fruit, wine, and oil. It, also has sulphur and salt mines and marble-quar ries. and Mount Etna supplies snow. The lisb erias arc extensive. The principal manufactures of Catania are linen, cotton, and silk goods, and objects in lava, wood. marble, and Sicilian am ber. The terra-cotta figures of Sicilian peasants are interesting. Commercially the city is ac tive, is the residence of a United States consul, and has regular communication by steamboat with the other ports of Sicily and of Italy, and with the eastern Mediterranean.
The classic Catana was founded by Greeks from Chalcis about B.C. 729. and soon became prosperous. Here, in the Sixth Century, B.C.. died Stesichorus, who created the chorus of the Greek drama, and the situation of whose tomb is said to have given name to the Piazza Stesicorea. In B.C. 476 the town was depopu lated by Hiero I. and renamed Etna, receiving a new population of Syracusans and Peloponne sians. who were, however, expelled in B.C. 461. In the war between Athens and Syracuse, Catania was the Athenian headquarters. In n.c. 403 it was sacked by Dionvsius: in B.C. 396 it was captured by the Carthaginians; and it was one of the first Sicilian towns acquired by the Ro mans, under whom it flourished greatly. It suffered during the Servile and the Civil wars. It was taken from Belisarius by the Goths, plundered by the Saracens, fortified by the Normans, and in A.D. 1169 almost destroyed by an earthquake. Being restored and in 1232 equipped by Frederick II. with the fortress of Rocca Orsina, it flourished under the Aragonese rulers of the Fourteenth Century. On March 8, 1609, in a terrific eruption of Etna, a stream of lava turned its course from the town to the har bor, which it partly filled up. Catania also suffered greatly from the earthquake of 1693. Most of the ruins here were excavated by Prince Biseari in the Eighteenth Century, and his col lections, studied by Goethe in 1787, can he seen in the Museo Pdseari. Population, in ISS1, 100,000; in 1901, 146,504.