Randazzo is the town closest to Etna's central crater — some fifteen kilometres — and the lava has never touched it: which is why it has come down to us with its medieval face intact, the black stone, the gates and the palaces.
Until the sixteenth century three languages were spoken here, one per quarter: Greek in San Nicola, Sicilian in Santa Maria, Lombard in San Martino, because the town had grown from the union of three different groups. A crown town, never given in fief, it hosted five parliaments of the kingdom; in the royal palace slept Constance of Hauteville, Frederick II and, passing through in 1535, Charles V. There are 11,108 residents.
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📅 Every year, on 19 March; the Vara of the Assumption on 15 August
The patron of Randazzo is Saint Joseph, on 19 March; but on 15 August, through the lava-paved streets, parades the Vara, an 18-metre float dedicated to Maria Santissima Assunta, the town's patroness.
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 Randazzo, but an easy day trip away.
