Neighbourhoods
There is a second Catania. It lies under our feet. And it is still breathing.
Catania is not only what you can see.
1 min read
All issuesWalking along via Etnea, few people imagine that beneath the baroque city there is an older world, buried under centuries of lava, history and silence.
This is subterranean Catania, where Roman ruins, vanished watercourses, forgotten crypts and hidden tunnels sit side by side. A tangle of past and lava stone waiting to be explored.
Beneath the Amenano fountain — “the water that runs below” — lies the first clue: the underground river that once crossed the city in daylight.
A little further on, under the cathedral, are the remains of the Achillean Baths: Roman, elegant, invisible to the naked eye. Going in is a form of time travel.
The 1669 eruption and the buried houses
Etna’s eruption of 1669 did not merely redraw the map of the city: it covered it in lava, swallowing churches, streets and whole districts.
On via Vittorio Emanuele and near Castello Ursino there are buildings raised on top of buried houses. Some still have staircases descending into the darkness of the earlier Catania. A city inside the city.
Crypts, catacombs and hidden passages
Some say that old crypts under San Gaetano alla Grotta are linked by tunnels nobody has yet explored.
Others swear they have seen the remains of Greek and Roman walls in the cellars of certain noble palazzi, where time has stopped — literally.
Catania to explore with a torch (or with a guide)
Some of these places can be visited on organised tours. Others take enthusiasm, curiosity and sometimes a special permit. But all of them tell you about a different Catania, deeper and very much alive — even under the lava stone.