CATANIA, the ancient Catana, a city and seaport of Sicily and the chief town of a province, is situated on the east coast of the island, at the foot of the southern projections of Mount Etna, about 60 miles by rail from Messina, in 37° 28' 20" N. lat. and 15° 5' 15" E. long. It is one of the most important and attractive cities in the island, and has a fine appearance from the sea. Its streets are wide, regular, and finely paved with blocks of lava; and not only its public buildings but a large number of its private mansions are spacious and handsome structures of lava and limestone ornamented with marble. Among its churches, which number upwards of a hundred, the first place is held by the cathedral, originally founded by Roger I. in 1091, but for the most part rebuilt since the earthquake of 1693; and, at the head of its monastic institutions stands the great Benedictine abbey of San Nicolo, which occupies an area of about 21 acres, and has hardly more than two or three buildings of the same kind in Europe to be compared withit. Its first foundation dates from 1518, when the Benedictines removed from the town of Nicolosi further up the slope of Mount Etna, where they had been settled since 1359; but the present buildings were erected in the beginning of the 18th century by Contini of Rome. The church is principa∏y remarkable for a grand organ, with seventy-two stops and 2916 pipes, built by Donato del Piano in 1760. The chief educational institution is the university founded in 1445 by Alphonso of Aragon; it has five faculties and thirty-eight professors, and was attended in 1873 by 233 students. The library is of considerable extent; but its collections of antiquities are surpassed by those in the Biscari Museum, founded by Prince Ignazio Biscari in the end of ...the 18th century. The senate house, the theatre, and the hospitals are the most important of the other buildings; and among the associations may be mentioned an academy of sciences and a college of the fine arts. Remains of the Roman period are numerous and extensive; they include a theatre, an amphitheatre, an odeum, several baths known as the Bagni Achillei, a number of tombs to the north-west of the town, and a few fragments of a so-called temple of Ceres. The theatre is for the most part buried under the débris of volcanic disturbances; and it has at different times served as a quarry for more modern buildings. Catania is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, and a court of appeal, as well as the residence of the grand prior of the Order of Malta. It is a place of great wealth, and is remarkable for the display of its festivals, of which the most important is held in August in honour of Santa Agata, the patroness of the city. Its industry and commerce are of considerable importance; silk and linen are largely manufactured, and there is a regular export of sulphur, grain, fruits, macaroni, olives, and articles in amber and lava. In 1873 the sulphur shipped amounted to 57,383 tons. In 1871 there entered the port 2297 sailing and 434 steam ships, with a respective tonnage of 97,442 and 162,387 tons. The value of the exports to Great Britain in 1874 was £160,000. The harbour is small, and accessible only to comparatively small craft, but another is in course of construction, which will be capable of receiving vessels of the largest size. Population in 1871, 84,379.
The ancient Catanawas founded (730 b.c. )by a colony from the neighbouring city of Naxos, which was itself founded by the Chalcidians of Euboea. It maintained its independence till 476 b.c., when it was taken by Hiero I., who removed its inhabitants to Leontini, and repeopled the city with a new colony of 5000 Syracusans and an equal number of Peloponnesians, at the same time changing its name to Aetna. Soon after the death of Hiero the former inhabitants obtained possession of the town, when it again took the name of Catana. In 403 b.c. it was taken by Dionysius of Syracuse, who, after plundering the city and selling the inhabitants for slaves, established there a body of Campanian mercenaries. In the first Punic war it was one of the earliest among the cities of Sicily to submit to the Romans, and it appears to have afterwards continued on friendly terms with them. In the time of Cicero it was a flourishing and wealthy city; but it suffered so severely from the ravages of Sextus Pompeius, that Augustus afterwards sent a colony of veterans thither. In its more modem history the principal events are its occupation by the Goths, its deliverance by Belisarius, its sack by the Saracens, its conquest by the Normans, its destruction by earthquake in 1169, and its devastation by Henry VI., the erection of its fortress of Rocca Orsina by Frederick II., and several sieges in the course of the 14th century, the partial ruin of its harbour in 1669 by the eruption of Mount Aetna, and its almost total overthrow by the earthquake of 1693.
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