Festa di Sant'Agata

The Festa di Sant'Agata is the great annual religious festival of Catania, dedicated to the third-century virgin martyr who is the city's patron. It runs over three days in early February and reshapes the centre completely — streets blocked, balconies decorated, the giant candelore (decorated wax candelabra) of the city guilds processing through the night.

For visitors the spectacle is overwhelming and worth experiencing if your travels overlap, but it is not a quiet visit; almost every hotel is full and large parts of the centre are inaccessible by car for several days. Accommodation needs to be booked months in advance.

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The festival runs from 3 to 5 February each year and draws around a million participants, ranking it with the Holy Week in Seville as one of the largest religious gatherings in Europe. The relics of Saint Agatha are paraded on a fercolo, an enormous silver carriage weighing over a tonne, pulled through the streets by white-robed devotees for more than twenty-four hours without stopping.

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