Catania – Museum
Address: Piazza Frederick II of Swabia
Province: Catania
City: Catania
Phone: +39 095 345830 – Fax +39 095 7233568
 
Hours entry
Monday to Saturday of 9:00 to 1:00pm and from 2:30 to 7:00pm – Sunday from 9:00 to 1:30 pm
 
The Museum is located within the picturesque Castello Ursino in Catania . The museum was closed for many years due to bureaucratic problems and raising funds to start the construction work. The Art Gallery, opened in 1995, houses valuable works by Luca Giordano, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Michaël Borremans, Beato Angelico and the school of Jose de Ribera, as well as paintings by Simone of Wobreck, Caravaggio and Anthony van Dyck. The paintings are part of the collection of Giovan Battista Finocchiaro, became the City of Catania in 1826, thanks to increased wealth of churches, convents and the Museum of the Benedictines. A major contribution was made by the generous donations of the families Rapisardi, Gandolfo, Biscari, Myron and Zappala Asmundo. The Museum is instead opened in 1934, thanks to the donation of the private collection of the Prince of the Benedictine Fathers and Biscari. The collection consists mainly of Benedictine materials Greek and Roman, found during excavations in the city of Catania or bought in the antique markets of Rome and Naples. The Biscari collection consists of archaeological materials instead of the Hellenistic and Roman period.
 
Catania – Botanical Garden
Address: Via A. Longo 19 I – Catania
Phone: +39 095 430901 – Fax: +39 095 441209
 
Hours entry: Monday – Friday: 9:30 to 1:30pm and 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Saturday: 9:30 to 1:30pm
Single ticket Full price: € 4 – Single ticket reduced: € 3
Disabled and university: Free
 
The Botanical Garden is managed by the University of Catania and is open only by appointment. The more than sixteen thousand hectares of the Garden, on land partly of volcanic origin, are rich in plants, flowers and trees of all kinds, most are tropical and subtropical. The area is divided into Hortus Generalis (13,000 square meters), which contains mainly exotic plants, and Hortus Siculus (3000 square meters), for cultivation of wild species in Sicily. The richest collection of the Botanical Garden of Catania is certainly the collection of succulent plants, which includes about 2,000 species, mainly Cactaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Aizoaceae, mostly grown outdoors. Thanks to the mild climate, the Garden grow many species, including wild plants of the flora of Sicily.