The patron saint of Valguarnera is Saint Christopher, protector of drivers, to whom the town's mother church is dedicated, founded in 1630. In the 19th century, also in his honour, a tile panel from Caltagirone depicting the saint carrying the Christ Child on his shoulder was mounted on a private house: the cult of Saint Christopher was spread precisely by the Princes of Valguarnera, of Spanish origin, who in 1549, thanks to the grant of the licentia aedificandi by Charles V, transformed the village into a town, giving it their own name. The co-patron, instead, is Saint Joseph, particularly loved by the townspeople, who remember him on Father's Day, 19 March, with the traditional «Tavolate di San Giuseppe».
The first documented records of Valguarnera date back to 1246, when the fief of Caropipi stood on the current promontory; the town experienced great demographic growth thanks to the nearby Floristella and Grottacalda mines, and today keeps their memory in the Ethno-Anthropological and Emigration Museum of Valguarnera, housed in Palazzo Prato.
