In 1136 a Norman document calls it Rechalena. Some read into the name the Arabic règ and aléna, the stony place where a thread of wind blows; others rahal Anna, Anna's hamlet. A comune, however, Ragalna became only on 17 May 1985: before that it was a hamlet of Paternò.
It lies on the southern flank of Etna, inside the park; the village grew around the houses of the Paternò and Catania landowners who had their estates here. In 1780 a lava flow threatened the fields and stopped, so they tell, after the procession of Saint Barbara's relics. In summer the town fills with second homes and reaches twenty thousand people. There are 3,676 residents.
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📅 Every year, on the last Sunday of September; Saint Barbara, co-patron, is celebrated on the last Sunday of July
Ragalna celebrates Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the last Sunday of September; the town's co-patron is Saint Barbara, celebrated on the last Sunday of July in memory of the eruptions of Etna from which the town was spared.
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.
