Fontana dell'Elefante

The Fontana dell'Elefante was installed in 1736 by the architect Giovanni Vaccarini, who took an ancient lava-stone elephant the city had been using as a civic mascot for centuries and set it on a baroque fountain pedestal in the middle of the newly rebuilt Piazza del Duomo. An Egyptian obelisk balances on its back, covered in cryptic hieroglyphs that may or may not be authentic.

The result is one of the strangest civic monuments in Italy: a Roman elephant, an Egyptian obelisk, baroque scrollwork and lava-stone water troughs, the whole thing improbably stable and improbably loved. It is the symbol of Catania on every postcard and the standard meeting spot for the city's residents.

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A story
The elephant — known locally as u Liotru — is genuine Roman, made of grey basalt, and almost certainly older than the Christian city around it. Local legend held that it had magical powers and protected Catania from earthquakes; the city has been levelled twice since the statue was placed in the square, which has not noticeably dimmed local affection for it.