Charles V entrance (or Canals’ one)

Culture, Monuments
Piazza Pardo - 95100 Catania

    Visiting the Pescheria? Enter the market from this Renaissance door.

    The Charles V entrance is the only one of the seven that made up the ancient city’s walls, still exists.

    The construction of the walls began in 1541 by the viceroy Vega, as recalls the commemorative plaque that it’s dated in 1553, with the aim of improving the defensive capability of the city against pirates who frequently attacked the coast of Catania.

    It’s dedicated to the Spanish king Charles V, the gateway is located within the folk “Pescheria” and opens into Piazza Pardo showing unusual Renaissance prospectus in Catania.

    Also it’s called “canals’ port” because before opposite there were thirty-six marina’s gutters where the Amenano river flowed before poured into the sea. The gutters were covered by the lava flow in 1669 and to avoid that it invaded the city, the Charles V’s entrance was temporarily side to divert the lava’s path.