Ognina Catania Sicilia Sicily Italia Italy - Castielli CC0

gnuckx, on April 29, 2009, said:

This is the area of "La scogliera" sea side of Catania. Ognina is a fisher harbour. I made this picture from the aeroplane on my way to Rome.

More info from Wikipedia...

Borgo marinaro di Ognina - Catania * Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ognina • Santuario di Santa Maria in Ognina (1308).

Ognina is the maritime quarter and the main fishing pole of Catania. Many bareboats and umpteen smacks gather and crowd here all year round.

During summertime this craggy inlet becomes a sort of vacationland for many Catanians, both denizens and provincials. The little Church of Saint Mary of Ognina, with its essential façade, rises in a square that sweetly slopes against the sea.

In its close vicinities there is the cylindric merloned Saint Mary's Tower (Torre Santa Maria) which was restructured in the XVI century to prevent the frequent plunders of the Saracen pirates.

The parishional origin is the result of the gradual modification of the once Greek Temple of Athena Longatis or Parthenos Longatis that stood anciently on the steep reef. This cult was imported from a Boeotian region of Greece called Longas[35] from where the first Hellenic settlers of this borough probably came.

Saint Mary of Lognina was already entitled this way in a few Vatican documents going back to 1308.Lognina is the dialectial version of Ognina that in Italian language has lost the initial "L" of the name.

In 1676 it was visited by the Sicilian historian Giovanni Andrea Massa who remained extremely impressed at the beauty of the building. After the earthquake of 1693 it was sobriously rebuilt on the same place but with a different orientation.

The Virgin Mary's Simulacre, venerated since 1600, was destroyed by a fire in 1885.For a period her image was exposed to the believers in the waxen features of a She-Child, the Madonna Bambina (the Child Madonna).Today's wooden statue was carved in 1889.

The Child Madonna is the Patroness of the Fishermen of Ognina where every year on September 8 a Processional Feast betides on the sea involving lots of Catanians coming even from abroad.

Along Ognina's coastline are visible the spectacular natural Grottos of Ulysses (le Grotte d'Ulisse).