The Patron
Sant'Agata
Sant'Agata is Catania's patron, celebrated on 5 February. Her feast runs from 3 to 5 February and is described as one of the world's largest religious festivals.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Catania,
Sicilia
A baroque city whose records split three different ways.
Catania sits at the foot of Etna , built largely of the lava that has repeatedly destroyed it. The city you walk through is a single architectural act — a baroque town raised after the earthquake of 1693 flattened everything that stood before.
For a researcher it has three separate custody problems, and all three are the kind that make a search fail without explaining why.
The Emblem
U Liotru
The lava-stone elephant in Piazza Duomo, u Liotru, is Catania's civic emblem. It is one of the most distinctive local symbols in Sicily and shorthand for the city itself.
The Landmark
Duomo di Catania
The Duomo di Catania anchors the rebuilt baroque centre. For family research, however, the parish attached to a specific quarter remains the practical way to narrow households inside a large city.
Did you know?
THREE DIFFERENT CUSTODY PROBLEMS
Catania records do not sit together
Sicily's civil registration begins in 1820, but Catania city's State Archive series starts only in 1841. Records for some modern Enna comuni moved there in 2013, while part of Catania province is instead served by the Caltagirone archive section.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard. Sicilian is widely represented in local speech and culture.
One province, three custody problems
Catania was founded by Greeks from Chalcis in the eighth century BC and has been continuously inhabited since — continuously, but not undisturbed. Its history is a list of destructions: the earthquake of 1169 , the sack by Henry VI's troops in 1194 , the War of the Vespers, the civil wars of the fourteenth century, the revolt of 1647 , and the lava flow of 1669 , which reached the city walls and pushed the sea back half a kilometre.
Then, on 11 January 1693 , the great earthquake of the Val di Noto destroyed Catania almost entirely and killed a large part of its population.
What followed is why the city looks as it does. Catania was rebuilt over the following decades on a new plan — wide straight streets to allow escape, low broad buildings, and a unified late baroque style executed largely in black volcanic stone and white limestone. Giovanni Battista Vaccarini shaped much of it. The result is one of the most coherent baroque cities in Europe, and it is UNESCO-listed together with the other rebuilt towns of the Val di Noto.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought sulphur and citrus trading, a busy port, and heavy Allied bombing in 1943. The city archive suffered a fire in 1944 .
Postcards from Catania
Wear Catania
Carry your heritage with pride. Timeless designs inspired by the heart of Catania.
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Where this
belongs
belongs
PROVINCIA DI CATANIA
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Catania and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE CATANIA →REGIONE SICILIA
From the mountains to the sea, Sicilia is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE SICILIA →From the passenger index
At least 2,680 people who gave Catania as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →Ready to visit
Baroque built from lava
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Catania Fontanarossa Airport.
Catania is a large, loud, working city, and its centre is one of the great coherent baroque ensembles in Europe — built in black lava stone, which gives it a character nothing else in Italy shares.
For a descendant it is walkable and legible. The via Etnea runs straight from the cathedral toward the mountain; the fish market below Piazza Duomo is the noisiest and most alive thing in the city; and the parish churches of the old quarters are where the records were made.
Etna is an hour up, and the Circumetnea railway rings the mountain through the towns on its slopes — useful if your family came from one of them rather than from the city.
What to see
Piazza Duomo and the Cattedrale di Sant'Agata — the saint's chapel, and the lava elephant outside.
La Pescheria — the fish market behind the piazza, best early.
Via Crociferi and the baroque churches — the post-1693 rebuilding at its most complete.
The Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena — now the university, and vast.
The Roman theatre and the Greek foundations — embedded in the modern streets.
Etna and the Circumetnea — the mountain and the towns around it.
Your family's parish — the record-keeping institution before 1820, and the fallback for the 1820–40 gap.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
Catania's own civil status begins later than the provincial series, and eleven comuni left for Enna in 2013.
Find the Catania archive on Antenati
Choose the Archivio di Stato di Catania from the map or list to reach its digitised holdings.
antenati.cultura.gov.itWhy Sicilian records begin in 1820
Antenati's own account of the Napoleonic, Restoration and Italian systems, and why Sicily's begins in 1820 rather than 1809.
antenati.cultura.gov.itRelated places
Keep exploring
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Catania is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →