Acireale
Acireale came into being 3000 years ago on the banks of the streams into which the river Aci divides. In 1000 B.C. it became a Phoenician emporium of major importance and 300 years later it was colonised by the Greeks, who called it Xiphonia, meaning "sword", perhaps because of the shape of the promontory on which it stood. Later, the Romans called it Aci, from Akis, a word with the same meaning as Xiphonia. The story of the town is marked by conquests, devastations - wrought not only by men but also by Etna - and reconstructions. Today Acireale stands on a terrace looking out on the sea - a position chosen in the fourteenth century - and has the look that it took on in the eighteenth century after the 1693 earthquake. Side by side with Byzantine and moorish elements, which survived the earthquake, we hence find many Baroque aspects. The main monument is the Cathedral, built around the end of the seventeenth century; it has a facade in the Gothic style done in the early twentieth century, on a design by Giovan Battista Basile, in which there is a baroque portal (1667-72 ). The interior is divided into three naves. There are affresco by Giuseppe Sciuti and Pietro Paolo Vasta. Other works of art include a holy water font by Antonello Gagini (1525 ) and a silver statue of Santa Venera ( to whom the church is dedicated together with the Virgin of the Assumption ) in the chapel of the same herself, utilised in the procession in her honour. Also outstanding is the San Sebastiano church, with a lively Baroque facade decorated with putti, statues, friezes and festoons. The interior is divided into three naves, and is decorated with frescos by Pietro Paolo Vasta.