Mount Etna

Mount Etna rises above eastern Sicily, a great volcano whose slopes descend towards Catania and the Ionian Sea. Its eruptions have repeatedly reshaped the mountain and the lands below, leaving fields of lava alongside fertile cultivated slopes, where settlements have long lived beneath the threat of renewed eruptions. Ancient Greeks associated its fires with the forge of Hephaestus and the giant Typhon.

In 1669 fissures opened on the southern flank and lava engulfed villages before reaching Catania. The flow surrounded Castello Ursino and entered the sea, changing the shoreline. Although the city walls diverted much of it, lava also entered the town. The eruption drew close observation from Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, whose account became an early scientific study of Etna's activity.