Italy · Sicilia · Siracusa
Grottasanta, Siracusa — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Grottasanta takes its name from a cave under the church of Maria Addolorata, a quarter of Siracusa climbing from the shore of the Ionian Sea.
About Grottasanta
Where to stay in Grottasanta
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Grottasanta is a residential quarter of Siracusa about three kilometres north of Ortygia, so a room here is an address in the city rather than a seat in its centre. Apartment blocks climb a limestone slope, with via Filisto and via dei Servi di Maria running the upper half and via Grotta Santa dropping toward the shore. The quarter was built for living in.
If you want the Ionian Sea within a short walk, the piliceddi rock pools below the quarter, and a night away from the crowds on Ortygia, and you are willing to drive or ride into the centre, this end of Siracusa suits you.
About Grottasanta
What are the main landmarks in Grottasanta?
Grottasanta's landmarks are a cave and the church built over it. The Grotta Santa opens beneath the church of Maria Addolorata a Grottasanta on via dei Servi di Maria, and a stairway named Salita Suor Chiara Di Mauro drops to its mouth. Via Filisto runs the upper quarter.
Via Grotta Santa drops to the lower. Out toward the coast, on via Lazio, the Campo sportivo Giorgio Di Bari holds the quarter's pitches. The scoglio due Fratelli stands offshore in the Ionian Sea, between Grottasanta and the neighbouring quarter of Mazzarona, above a shore of piliceddi rock pools.
What is the history of Grottasanta?
Grottasanta began as the Cozzo del Romito, a limestone latomia quarried north of the Greek city and long since built over. A hermit renamed the ground. Giuseppe Veneziano, an Augusta man of Venetian family, withdrew to a cave there, and the congregation gathered around him was approved in 1643, which is what gave the grotto its name.
Archbishop Giacomo Carabelli raised a church over it in 1932 on land given by the Gargallo marquises, and on 23 August 1935 the parish of Maria SS. Addolorata a Grottasanta passed to the Servi di Maria. The quarter itself is far younger, built up in the 1970s as Siracusa spread north, and it stood as one of nine circoscrizioni of the comune until that tier was abolished in 2018.
Where is Grottasanta?
Grottasanta occupies the north-east shoulder of Siracusa, between Acradina to the south and Mazzarona to the north, with the Ionian Sea as its eastern edge.
More areas in Siracusa
Updated September 2026