The patroness of Carlentini is Saint Lucy, celebrated on the fourth Sunday of August. The city's mother church, seat of the archpriest parish of the Immaculate Conception, stands alongside other historic churches in the town's various districts: the parish of Santa Tecla in the Santuzzi district, that of Mary Most Holy of the Star in Pedagaggi, and the church of San Sebastiano.
The city was founded on 31 August 1551 by viceroy Giovanni De Vega, on the orders of Emperor Charles V, by an imperial decree signed in Madrid, to be the «Lentini of Charles» — hence the name Carlentini — and it still bears the motto «Cesarea et inexpugnabilis» on its town banner. Standing on Colle Meta Grande, on the slopes of Monte Pancali and the Iblei Mountains, the city is today known, together with Lentini and Francofonte, for the production of the Sicilian Blood Orange.
