Known to the ancient Greeks as Echetle, meaning "plowshare," this Sicilian settlement has an urban layout that looks like a giant geometric web from above. Grammichele is one of Italy's rarest examples of rational architecture, designed entirely around a strict hexagonal street plan that houses its 13,000 residents.
Located on the western slopes of the Hyblaean Mountains, the town sits just 13 kilometers from Caltagirone. Its historical timeline is traced through a series of name changes, from the Latin Ochula to the medieval Occhiolà, making this geometric anomaly a fascinating architectural detour in the province of Catania.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Catherine, patrons of a hexagonal city born after the earthquake, Saturday 8 May
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 47 km away
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📅 Every year, on 8 May
Grammichele celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Catherine of Alexandria on 8 May, to whom the town's cathedral is dedicated; the town was founded by Prince Carlo Maria Carafa Branciforte three months after the 1693 earthquake, with a hexagonal layout unique in Italy.
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Grammichele, but an easy day trip away.
