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TRECASTAGNI
14 kms from Catania - 586 a.s.l.

The town belonged first to the Di Giovanni family, and then to the Alliata family. A witness to the Renaissance is the imposing Cathedral, the work of Gagini, inside there is a fine painting by the catania artist Giuseppe rapisarda and a fresco by the Acireale artist Paolo Vasta. The fifteenthcentury church of the Bianco with its low bell tower and well-made decorations, is very lovely, as the church of St. Antony of Padua with its cloister of lava-stone pillars. The name of the town derives from the "Three Caste lambs" (Tre Casti Agni); the patron Saints Alphius, Phildelphus and Cyrenus, whose feast day is May 10th. It is supposed to be one of the best feast of the province. On the spot where the three brothers stopped to drink at spring before going to their martyrdom in Militello, there is now a Sanctuary dedicated to them.
The style is Lombard Romanic, it was started in the seventeenth century, and inside there is an anonymus painting of the martyrdom of the three brothers saints, of the eighteenth century.
On the night between the 9th and the 10th of May the Sanctuary is the destination of the so-called "nudes", who come from Catania and the other Etna villages.
Barefoot, in shorts and red sash around their chests, they carry in worship heavy candles which can weigh up to 100 kilos.