The city of Catana is revered by the Tretrim in Sicily, and therefore they call it Royal. Here is the permanent residence of the Bishop, who is subordinate, however, to the Archbishop of Montreal. Katana is built in the valleys, near a small sea bay called El. On its midday side it reaches almost to the last ledges of Etna. There are up to 25 thousand inhabitants. It is decorated with several squares, and in the middle of one of them is placed, on a beautiful marble base, a monument representing a huge elephant made of lava, called zBs ussagga; on his back is an obelisk made of eastern granite, covered with hieroglyphic signs; it can rightly be counted among the most ancient remnants of antiquity. As in all Italian cities, here the cathedral is the first object of curiosity for travelers, and so I went to inspect it. It is vast, it is true, but too bright; his eyes are hung with bad pictures; the outer columns are taken from an ancient amzitheater; They decorated the inside of the church in exactly the same way, but one of the Bishops thought they were thin, perhaps because they were proportional, and he hid them in thick and bad pilasters, which completely distorted everything. The cathedral is located on the same square where there is an elephant with an obelisk. The building is quite impressive in Kagan, Senate: it has regular and majestic architecture; but a miracle of architecture, this is the Venedictine monastery. It looks more like the palace of a powerful sovereign than the monastery of humble monks. All the accessories of this building correspond to its magnificent porch made of white marble. The monastic cells are decorated like the most dandy chambers of a secular person; Everywhere there are muslin, multi-colored curtains, and you rarely see a statue of a reclining Venus, among the busts of the Mother of God and images of saints. All this is funny, more than sinful. The library belonging to the monastery is well compiled; there is a museum nearby, a lot of good antiques and Natural History items. The church is great, but I found in it the same flaw that I had built into the cathedral: it seemed too bright to me. These organs are considered to be among the best in Italy. The monastery now stands just like on an island: during the eruption of Etna, in 4783, fiery streams of lava flowed along the sides of the monastery fence, but it was spared and it remained unharmed. This terrible eruption everywhere left indelible stains, and one of the most curious is the remains of the ancient walls of the city, completely covered with lava. At their base is a spring of water, which Areeusa is worthy of refreshing; people now descend to it by sixty-two steps: the level of the earth has risen so much!
Black, huge lava rocks are scattered everywhere. Now they began to tear them apart, and I doubt that they would find many interesting things. The Duke of Karkaci had already found, by digging the Foundation for his house, the sculptor’s workshop, with all his tools, and next to it another one that belonged to the Maker of clay vases: all this was filled with lava. Katana, like Portici in Naples, was washed by the sea, but rose high on layers of lava, mixed with its own debris. It is impossible not to foresee the fate of this city; but the careless inhabitants do not even think about her: some strangers, like Cassandra, who was not taken in, shout in their ears a terrible prophecy: Roze, rose, the title is geez atyig, but the blow from the sea carries away the words of the retreating prophet, and Katanets, strongly naldByupiya for the patronage of his protector Saint Agavi continues to build for new destruction.
Looking at the charming surroundings of Katana, one can even understand this carelessness. As soon as it stops its terrible actions, the nature here becomes so merciful, so gracious, so quickly and thoroughly smoothes out the shadows of its evil, that you involuntarily share with the inhabitants their carelessness: I won’t say anything in Sicily alone, but in the whole of Europe, the charm of the Catan environs. This fiery land is wonderfully fruitful, and cannot be compared with the flat and uniform, although also fertile Lombardy: here the earth enriches a person by delighting his senses. Wherever you turn, nature is enchanting. The variety of scenes and the unexpectedness of the locations are truly rewarding. All parts of rich landscapes are connected here; sea, forests, valleys, mountains, and what another mountain, Etna!
Towards the sea side there are also a few ancient Ukrainian monuments. ‘There is also the old castle of Ursino, in which the Sicilian Kings, the Arragonese generation often lived, their parliaments and judicial chambers met.