Castro Giovanni

Castro Giovanni (anc. Enna), a town in the province of Catania, Sicily, and near the railway between Catania and Girgenti, stands on a lofty and fertile plateau 4,000 feet above sea-level, the position being nearly impregnable. According to some accounts the place was established as a colony from Syracuse in the seventh century B.C., but its fame reaches back into the mythical past, for here Ceres was believed to have been born, and close by is the lake of Pergusa, whence Pluto carried Proserpine away. From the tyrants of Syracuse it passed first to the Carthaginians and then to the Romans. The Saracens held it from 350 to 1080, and have left some architectural traces. They were followed by the Normans, whose fair hair and blue eyes may be still recognised among he dark-skinned Sicilians. The site of the famous temple of Ceres is now filled by the ruins of a castle built by Ferdinand II. of Aragon. The name is simply a corruption of Castrum Ennae.