"U Liotru" in bianco e nero
© All rights reserved
Another shot taken yesterday downtown. I hope you like this postproduction, though it is a bit overdone ad Guido says...
The elephant o "u liotru" , in Sicilian dialect, is the symbol of Catania. The story
is very interesting. You can find the wikipedia version here in Italian
Here some notes in English about its story
The symbol of the Catania is "u Liotru", or the Fontana dell'Elefante, and was assembled in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. It is made of marble portraying an ancient lavic elephant and surmounted by an Egyptian obelisk from Syene. Tall tale has it that Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility. To appease them, Vaccarini appended appropriately elephantine testicles to the original statue.
The Sicilian name "u Liotru" is the deformation of the name Heliodorus who was a sorcerer and necromancer from Catania. He was a nobleman who, after trying without success to become bishop of the city, became a sorcerer and was therefore condemned to the stake. Legend has it that Heliodorus himself was the sculptor of the lava elephant and that he used to magically rode it in his travels from Catania to Constantinople. Another legend has it that Heliodorus could be capable of transforming himself into an elephant.
A similar sculpture is in Piazza Santa Maria della Minerva in Rome.
Catania's coat of arms is a red elephant on a light-blue field with an "A" (Agatha's initial or the first letter of Aetna) set higher above its back. Below the shield there is a bright red ribbon whose central part shows four inwrought golden initials.The sequence S.P.Q.C. hides the Latin expression "Senatus Popolus Quae Catanensis", the "Senate of the People of Catania" .
The folk presence of an elephant in the millenary history of Catania is mainly connected to both zooarcheology and popular creeds.
In the Upper Paleolithic, in fact, the prehistoric fauna of Sicily enumerated a host of dwarf elephants.
The Catanian Museum of Mineralogy, Paleonthology and Vulcanology takes care of the integral unburied skeleton of an elephas falconeri in an excellent state of conservation. The primitive inhabiters of Etna and whilom forefathers of the latter-day Catanians, molded such lavic artifact to idolize the mythical proboscidian they had considered the sole responsible of the resolutive ejection of all the vexing animals from the volcanic territories.
This venerated black sculpture survived the centuries to outlast till today. It is doubtless the most ancient Catania's monument, followed by the Syenian obelisk positioned on its spine.
In the official heraldry its scarfskin became red to recollect the colour of the ardent lava. But the most-told occurrence that will be fundamental to radicate this kind of affection for the beloved Liotru is on the other hand strictly due to the local and documented legend of the "magician" Heliodorus.
Have a look at my first book (updated version)
"U Liotru" in bianco e nero
© All rights reserved
Another shot taken yesterday downtown. I hope you like this postproduction, though it is a bit overdone ad Guido says...
The elephant o "u liotru" , in Sicilian dialect, is the symbol of Catania. The story
is very interesting. You can find the wikipedia version here in Italian
Here some notes in English about its story
The symbol of the Catania is "u Liotru", or the Fontana dell'Elefante, and was assembled in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. It is made of marble portraying an ancient lavic elephant and surmounted by an Egyptian obelisk from Syene. Tall tale has it that Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility. To appease them, Vaccarini appended appropriately elephantine testicles to the original statue.
The Sicilian name "u Liotru" is the deformation of the name Heliodorus who was a sorcerer and necromancer from Catania. He was a nobleman who, after trying without success to become bishop of the city, became a sorcerer and was therefore condemned to the stake. Legend has it that Heliodorus himself was the sculptor of the lava elephant and that he used to magically rode it in his travels from Catania to Constantinople. Another legend has it that Heliodorus could be capable of transforming himself into an elephant.
A similar sculpture is in Piazza Santa Maria della Minerva in Rome.
Catania's coat of arms is a red elephant on a light-blue field with an "A" (Agatha's initial or the first letter of Aetna) set higher above its back. Below the shield there is a bright red ribbon whose central part shows four inwrought golden initials.The sequence S.P.Q.C. hides the Latin expression "Senatus Popolus Quae Catanensis", the "Senate of the People of Catania" .
The folk presence of an elephant in the millenary history of Catania is mainly connected to both zooarcheology and popular creeds.
In the Upper Paleolithic, in fact, the prehistoric fauna of Sicily enumerated a host of dwarf elephants.
The Catanian Museum of Mineralogy, Paleonthology and Vulcanology takes care of the integral unburied skeleton of an elephas falconeri in an excellent state of conservation. The primitive inhabiters of Etna and whilom forefathers of the latter-day Catanians, molded such lavic artifact to idolize the mythical proboscidian they had considered the sole responsible of the resolutive ejection of all the vexing animals from the volcanic territories.
This venerated black sculpture survived the centuries to outlast till today. It is doubtless the most ancient Catania's monument, followed by the Syenian obelisk positioned on its spine.
In the official heraldry its scarfskin became red to recollect the colour of the ardent lava. But the most-told occurrence that will be fundamental to radicate this kind of affection for the beloved Liotru is on the other hand strictly due to the local and documented legend of the "magician" Heliodorus.
Have a look at my first book (updated version)