Porta Garibaldi

Catania's Porta Garibaldi stands imposingly at the meeting point of Piazza Palestro and the top of Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the city's most important streets. Originally known as Porta Ferdinandea, the arch was built in 1768 to celebrate the marriage between King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and the Austrian princess, Maria Carolina of Hapsburg-Lorraine. 

Porta Garibaldi's alternating black and white bands consist of white Lentini stone quarried from Siracusa, further down Sicily's eastern coast, while the black lava stone is from nearby Mount Etna, whose volcanic activity and earthquakes have caused the city to be destroyed and rebuilt multiple times.

Among the many symbols adorning the arch are the carving of a phoenix rising, the mythological symbol of rebirth dear to the hearts of Catanians. A Latin inscription under the phoenix reads "Melior de cinere surgo", which effectively translates to 'rising from the ashes even more beautiful'. Both are poignant reminders of the fortitude and tenacity of Catania and its residents, but also of the potential turbulence of living in the shadow of the world's most active stratovolcano.