PATERNO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, stands at the south-west foot of Mount Aetna, 10 miles north-west of Catania near the railway from that city to Leonforte. It is a long straggling place with a mediaeval castle (1073) and several churches and suppressed convents. The surrounding country is fertile, producing corn, oil, wine, flax, hemp, and timber, in which articles an active trade is carried on. Paternó gives the title of “prince” to a Sicilian family. In the neighbourhood the remains of ancient baths, tombs, and aqueduct, and a bridge across the Simcto have been discovered. The town is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Hybla Major. Population 15,230.