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Aderno

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, 22 m. N.W. of the town of that name. Pop. (1901) 25,859. It occupies the site of the ancient Adranon, which took its name from Adranos, a god probably of Phoenician origin, in Roman times identified with Vulcan, whose chief temple was situated here, and was guarded by a thousand huge gods; there are perhaps some substructures of this building still extant outside the town. The latter was founded about 400 B.C. by Dionysius I.; very fine remains of its walls are preserved. For a time it was the headquarters of Timoleon, and it was the first town taken by the Romans in the First Punic War (263 B.C.). In the centre of the modern town rises the castle, built by Roger I.; in the chapel are frescoes representing his granddaughter, Adelasia, who founded the convent of St Lucia in 1157, taking the veil. The columns in the principal church are of black lava.

See P. Russo, Illustrazione storica di Aderno (Aderno, 1897) .