CataniaAcireale.
The city was probably founded in the mid-14th c. by inhabitants of the coastal area who in order to be safe from pirate raids took refuge a little further inland and higher up on the flat extent of lava that dominates the lemon riviera, as it is known today. The name Acireale was given to the town by Philip IV, king of Spain and Sicily, who made it a direct royal domain. After the earthqake in 1693, the city was rebuilt to the urbanistic design of the Duke of Camastra, who also redesigned Catania after the earthquake. The town developed considerably in the first decades of 20th c., with the opening up of a number of wide streets, which may indeed seem excessive in the general context of the town but which have proved providential with the increase in traffic. They have allowed, since their creation, a very rapid and considerable increase in the population.

From whatever direction one approaches the town, the first place to visit is the Chiesa di San Sebastiano (second half 17th c.), with its fine baroque façade and bell-tower, which is not at the side but in the body of the church, an original architectural arrangement that is common in the Val di Noto: it is in fact an extension of the façade. The balustrade and the statues are an addition of 1754 by G. B. Marino.Inside there are frescoes by Pietro Paolo Vasta and Vito D’Anna. Vasta was a skilful painter from the town. which explains why thereare so many signs of his activity at Acireale. where we find his paintings also in the Chiesa di San Camillo dei Crociferi and the Chiesa del Suffragio. In one wide baroque square stand the Cathedral, the Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo and the Town Hall (1659). characterized by finely shaped pilasterstrips, balconies, grotesque corbels and the palchetto balustrade (an excellent example of 17th c. Sicilian provincial architecture). The Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation and to St Venera surprisingly presents itself with an early 20th c. Neo-Gothic façade; the cathedral was actually built between the 14th and 17th c. The nave and two aisles are separated by two pillars. St venera, the patron saint of the town, is represented in a silver statue by Mario d’Angelo (1651), situated in its own distinguished chapel; the central vault was frescoed in 1905 by Giuseppe Sciuti, a painter born in nearby Zafferana Etnea; but there are also older frescoes (1736-67) by P. P. Vasta, and some fine sacred objects, e.g. the silver litter of St venera, and holy water stoups, which testify to the care and affection shown to the cathedral over the centuries by the faithful. The Zelantea Library and Art Gallery is in Via Marchese di San Giuliano. The library contains 160,000 volumes, many of which are rare and valuable. Adjacent to it is the Town Records Office. The Art Gallery is in the same building as the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Risorgimento, in their separate rooms. There are of course other works of art in this town (as for example the neo-classical interior of the Chiesa dei Filippini) which we leave visitors to discover for themselves, with the curiosity that distinguishes them. (A guidebook is not, nor it can ever be, a complete inventory; it has to make choices, which are always debatable.)