Acireale was called Xiphonia in Grecian times, then the Romans called it Akis and it was probably called Jachium during the Byzantine and Norman domination.

But its origins sink in the myth, they make him go up again to the tender and sweet love story among the nymph Galatea and the young shepherd Aci killed out of jealousy by the cyclops Polifemo and turned by the compassionate Jupiter into a streamc to make to definitely rejoin him with the beloved one. <<.... and the Etna trembled to that cry. Then frightened, I bathed nearby me in the sea, and in escape it turned the shoulders the young Aci, shouting: " Help, Galatea, prays you, help or father or mother, in your kingdom you pick up the next child to the death...

Officially Acireale was founded after 1300 by the inhabitants of the near Aquilia escaped to the natural calamities and the devastations of the invading army of the king Roberto of Naples, headed by Beltrando del Balzo. At first it called Aquilia Nuova to distinguish it from the Old one, then Aci Aquilia when in 1642, with provision of Phillip IV of Spain, it became "regal" and was recognized of ownership of the king.

The creation of the first lived nucleus must be put around 1330. It was in that years that where today Cathedral plaza is some family nucleuses - first survivors to the invasion of the Angioinis and subsequently to the 1329 strong earthquake and the violent eruption of the Etna that actually pushed it lava castings to the sea of Stazzo or Pozzillo - they built the first residences and the small church devoted to Annunziata.

From agglomeration of houses, during the XV century the new Aquilia purchased the physiognomy of a city, actually to become - to the beginnings of 1500 - the most important and flourishing center of the whole territory. In 1393 around the city and a vast area were under Aragonese occupation with certain privileges.

It followed another long feudal period, actually to when in 1531 the inhabitants of Aquilia Nuova succeeded in redeeming themselves and to reenter in the king´s territory, thanks to notable donations of privacies, after the acceptance of the proposal (1530) from the emperor Carlo V. After having taken the risk to again be sold (1553), Aquilia Nuova started to excel - for number of inhabitants, economy, monuments etc - on the remainders existing Aci in the territory:

Aci Bonaccorsi, Aci Castello, Aci Catena, Aci S.Filippo, Aci Trezza, Aci Valverde. The church of the announced one was raised to parish, freed by the dependence of the church of Aci S.Filippo.

They didn´t miss, meanwhile, the strong contrasts among the various villages, fed from jealousies and from aspirations autonomous. The definitive separation was had in 1640, after a brief period of pacification arrived following the attempt of sale of the whole territory of Aci, operated by Phillip IV for the banker Antonio Scribani.

The operation failed, but Phillip IV definite equally to sell the "hamlets" smaller that had not succeeded to ask the alienation to the king´s territory. They were born so the cities of Aci S.Antonio and Aci S.Filippo, polemically called by the new owner - Nicolò Diana - "Aci Superiore", in opposition to Aquilia Nuova

("Aci Inferiore"), remained demaniale and on the point to definitely call Acireale, for then to confer upon themselves in the 1648 of the title of "Faithful." The cause of the autonomy was aloft always estate account, so much is whether to get further other temptations of sale - as that to advantage of the Genoese banker Agostino Ayroli - the acesis sent in the 1657 ambassadors to Madrid. The sale failed.

And one of the defenders of the desires acesi - Martin De Redin, Gran Teacher of the order Gerosolimitano - of passage with his fleet in the mirror of sea

before Acireale - he was festively greeted with shots of mortar by the fortitude of the Touch, built on to end of 1500 for the sighting of the ships of the Turkish pirates. The event was immortalized by the painter Giacinto Platania in a preserved picture in the pictury-gallery Zelantea.

Is a precious testimony of the Acireale of that times, a city that started to also grow to urban level.

It was really in 600 that they were traced and opened the streets Galatea, Angel Raffaele delle Maestranze (today street Romeo), Corso Savoia and Corso Umberto, otherwise denominates and of more narrow dimensions. They started to build the Building of City. Churches and buildings rose.
The 1639 awful earthquake provoked great destructions.

But the ability of recovery of the city was as many great and immediate. You reconstructed to the insignia of the slow Baroque. Acireale transformed him in a yard and in few decades it purchased the face of a prestigious center, hard-working, rich of culture and of works of art.

If the Seven hundred one were one century of constant development, the eight hundred it marked remarkable turns, even if to a large extent characterized by the rivalry with Catania and from some ugly criminalizations that Acireale was forced to suffer, as the deprivation of the judicial center, the delayed construction of the road of connection with Catania, the rejection of the application to build an I bring to Capomulini to do another of it, instead, to Catania.
Faithful city to the Borbonis during the 1837 motions, Acireale was elevated to district from Ferdinando II. It was 1838, in the same year the king it welcomed the question of institution of the diocese, but it didn´t do anything for so many years yet.

Bursted the 1848 revolution, Acireale lined up him, nevertheless from the part of how much they fought for the independence of the Kingdom of Sicily.
The ruling patriotism made even to forget the rivalries with the near cities. In the occasion the catanesis gave the tricolor flag to the acesis with the emblem of the Trinacria. But the Bourbon troops extinguished soon all the excitements forcing in 1849 the city to the surrender. After the Thousand enterprise, acireale was pronounced for the annexation. Taken back the growth, marked as from remarkable and prestigious tappe. It is more recent history.

Here are the events more important:

Then the second world war: the Germans´ occupation before and subsequently of the allies, the end of the hostilities, the rebirth. It is history of our times. Today Acireale is a calm town, center of congresses, cultural center, tourist place among the most beautiful of Sicily.