The context and the legende

We will tell you the story of the headless horse of Via Crociferi. Of course we speak of an ancient legend, but this is a challenge of a certain charm one of the oldest neighborhoods of Catania ....

It seems that in Catania, in 1700 in what is today one of the most crowded streets of nightlife, lovers met, men ready to betray their best friends, to design conspiracies and to architect, in great secrecy, the wrongdoings, yes just terrible things. In short, those who went to Via Crociferi did not really want to be recognized or discovered, so someone began to make the rumor that on that stretch of road a horse without head turned around when the sun went down until just before dawn . A strategic way to keep the curious away, but the gullible did not waste time to fall for it. The tradition handed down that it was so for a young man from Catania, only apparently brave.

The boy made a bet with his friends and this cost him his life. According to the bet the young man, without showing a fear, promises his friends a night walk and alone in Via Crociferi. To prove that he was close to planting a nail under the Arch of the monastery of San Benedetto. One o'clock midnight the boy was under the arch of the Benedictines to plant the nail.

What he did not notice was a piece of his cloak just trapped in the nail, now stuck in the stone, just as he did to leave he felt held back by someone or something. Believing that it was the headless horse that grabbed him, he died on the stroke of a heart attack. Since then it took years before anyone set foot in via Crociferi at night. It is said that even today, one night, someone can hear the sound of the hooves of a horse on the paving.

Il Solaio is open until late in the evening, an opportunity not to be missed to relive the ancient legend!