Santa Maria di Licodia


Santa Maria di Licodia is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Catania, eastern Sicily, southern Italy.

History

Santa Maria di Lodia occupies traditionally the site of the ancient Aetna, a settlement founded by the colonists whom Hiero I of Syracuse had placed at Catania after their expulsion by the original inhabitants in 461 BCE, which absorbed or incorporated an already existing Sicel town named Inessa.

Main sights

A large hoard of coins was found also outside Santa Maria di Licodia in 1891.
In the nearby district of Civita is a large elliptical area, enclosed by a wall of masses of lava, which is about wide at the base and high. The ground is covered with fragments of tiles and pottery of the classical period, and it is probably a hastily built encampment of historic times rather than a primitive fortification, as there are no prehistoric traces.

Twin towns