Carini was called Hyccara, and it was an emporium on the sea that the Phoenicians frequented. In 415 BC Nicias destroyed it with five thousand Athenians, and its people were sold as slaves at the market of Catania: among them was a girl called Laïs, who would become the most famous hetaira of Corinth. The survivors rebuilt the town far from the sea, in among the woods, where San Nicola is today. Then came the Carthaginians, who raised the wall still called the Muro di Carini, and the Romans, with their houses of mosaic floors and, later, the Christian catacombs under Villagrazia: Carini was a bishop's see, and we know it from the letters of Gregory the Great.
«Chianci Palermu, chianci Sicilia»: the ballad of the bitter case of the baroness of Carini is among the most famous pages of Sicilian popular poetry, and it tells of Laura Lanza di Trabia, wife of Vincenzo La Grua, killed in the castle in 1563 — not by her husband, but by her father, don Cesare Lanza. The castle can still be visited, bloodstain and all; the fortress was raised by Rodolfo Bonello after count Roger gave him the barony in 1072, and the Arab traveller Idrisi found it already standing. Below the medieval town the citrus plain runs down to the gulf. And further below is the Carburangeli cave, four hundred metres of galleries from which digs have brought out the bones of elephants, bears, hyenas, bison and deer: animals no longer found in Sicily. The two women of Carini stand twenty centuries apart, and the town's volleyball club still carries the name of Laïs.
Bioparco di Sicilia · castello di Carini · chiesa di Maria Santissima degli Agonizzanti and 4 more
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
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Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 9 km away
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📅 Every year, from 12 to 14 September
On 14 September Carini celebrates the Santissimo Crocifisso, patron since the city passed from the diocese of Mazara del Vallo to that of Monreale, replacing the older patron Saint Vitus; the feast lasts three days, from 12 to 14 September.
Bioparco di Sicilia Carini's zoo, begun in 1999 as a park of life-size dinosaurs, with an aquarium and animals from every continen 
castello di Carini The Norman fortress of the La Grua Talamanca, with its coffered hall and the story of the baroness of Carini. chiesa di Maria Santissima degli Agonizzanti A Baroque church in Carini clad in stuccoes of the Serpotta school, with the «teatrini» of the dying. 
duomo di Carini Carini's mother church, with a two-towered façade, frescoes by Giuseppe Testa and an Adoration by Allori. Torre Muzza The remains of one of the largest coastal watchtowers of the Palermo area, at Piraineto, Carini. Riserva naturale integrale Grotta di Carburangeli A cave about four hundred metres long near Villagrazia di Carini, with fossils of elephants, bears and hyenas. Tall, soft bread dough, tomato, onion, anchovies, oregano and caciocavallo: sfincione is Palermo's focaccia, cut into squares.
Read more →Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo cheese inside a golden crust. Round and feminine in Palermo, pointed and called arancino in Catania: the quarrel 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 Carini, but an easy day trip away.
