Profili Siciliani

Ognina (Lògnina in the Catania dialect) is a district in the north-eastern area of ??the city of Catania. The village of Ognina is inextricably linked to the myth of Ulysses who, since the writing of the poem The Cyclops by Euripides, is believed to have landed along the jagged coast of Catania.
In the Middle Ages, the coast, the town and the port of Ognina were devastated by the eruption of Etna in 1169, erroneously dated to 1381 for a long time, which originated between Tremestieri Etneo, Gravina di Catania and Mascalucia [5]. A high cylindrical tower was erected on the port, today dated to the 14th-15th century, whose function probably had to be of a military nature: in fact, the famous Scacco di Ognina took place at the port of Ulysses in 1356, a naval battle that was part of the war between the Angevins and the Aragonese. This tower was converted into a bell tower for the Church of Santa Maria di Ognina, a building today with a late Baroque appearance since it was rebuilt after the Val di Noto earthquake of 1693.

However, the current nucleus developed only starting from the 19th century, when the sulfur industries settled alongside the already developed fishing activities, and following this, starting from 1830, the roads were built which connected the Etna capital with the city ??of Messina, and after 1866 the railway lines that connected with the Peloritan city and with Caltagirone, the latter being a very important connection for the transport of raw materials from the sulfur mines of central-southern Sicily.

In the meantime, there was a building development, which increased above all towards 1931, the year of the drafting of a general regulatory plan, and the period in which the activities of the sulfur industries ceased. The ancient village, which has now become a city district, recorded a further increase at the end of the Second World War, a period, among other things, in which the bunkers and the anti-aircraft of the Nazi army were installed: the area, in fact, was severely hit by Allied bombing, in which many civilians also perished.
The appearance of the neighborhood changed in the following decades, with the construction of imposing residential buildings, especially in the seafront area. In 1970, on the final stretch of the ring road, the bridge was built, which was then demolished in 2004 to make room for the construction of the roundabout dedicated to Giorgio La Pira, inaugurated on 7 June of the same year-