Piazza dell'Università is the second of the great baroque squares of Catania, sitting on Via Etnea just north of Piazza del Duomo. The two long sides are occupied by the Palazzo dell'Università and the Palazzo San Giuliano, both designed by Giovanni Vaccarini in the eighteenth century.
The square is most striking at night, when the four ornamental bronze street lamps — one at each corner, each carrying a scene from a different Catania legend — are lit. The university itself, founded in 1434, is the oldest in Sicily.