Pedara: feasts and traditions

Pedara lies at 610 metres on the southern slopes of Mount Etna, between Nicolosi, Trecastagni, Zafferana Etnea, Tremestieri Etneo and San Giovanni La Punta, about 15 km by road from Catania. It has around 15,500 inhabitants and in Sicilian it is called Pirara. Nobody knows for sure where the name comes from: one theory points to the Latin "ad pedes arae", "at the foot of the altar", after the altar of Etnean Jupiter that appears on the town's coat of arms and gives its name to the main street, Corso Ara di Giove.

The town's history takes shape after the Norman conquest. In 1388 the bishop of Catania, Simone del Pozzo, authorised the first parish church; in the 14th century two eruptions buried the fields and the inhabitants moved further downhill, to where the town stands today. In 1641 the village, until then governed by the Senate of Catania, was sold to the Di Giovanni family of Messina. After damage from the 1669 eruption, the earthquake of 11 January 1693 destroyed most of Pedara: the priest Diego Pappalardo led the rebuilding and in less than twenty years raised the mother church of Santa Caterina again, made a minor basilica in 1996. Pedara became an independent municipality in 1817.

The patron saint is the Virgin of the Annunciation (Maria Santissima Annunziata), celebrated on 25 March and on the second Sunday of September; her church has been an archdiocesan Marian shrine since 1971. In the north of the municipality lies Tarderia, an old farming hamlet surrounded by chestnut woods, while on the road up to the volcano the Salto del Cane area, with an extinct crater, is a base for hikes in Etna Park. In autumn the town hosts the Mushroom, Apple and Chestnut Festival.