, 1904) of 5000 to 6000 each. Belen is the oldest
Spanish settlement in the province and was founded in 1550, being called
Barco at first. The population is largely mixed with Indian blood.

CATAMARCA (_San Fernando de Catamarca_), capital of the above province
on the Rio del Valle de Catamarca, 230 m. (318 m. by rail) N.N.W. of
Cordoba. Pop. (1895) 7397; (1905, estimate) 8000, with a large
percentage of mestizos. Catamarca is connected by railways with Rioja
and Patquia and with Cordoba. The city stands in a narrow, picturesque
valley at the foot of the Sierra de Ambato, 1772 ft. above sea level.
The valley is highly fertile, partially wooded, and produces fruit in
abundance, wine and some cereals. In the city are flour mills and
tanneries, and among its exports are leather, fruit, wine, flour, and a
curious embroidery for which the women of Catamarca have long been
famous. There is a fine church, 220 by 90 ft., and a national college
occupies the old Merced convent. The alameda is one of the prettiest in
the Argentine Republic, having a reservoir of two acres surrounded by
shrubbery and walks. Catamarca was founded in 1685 by Fernando de
Mendoza because the town of Chacra, the former provincial capital, a few
miles north of Catamarca, had been found unhealthy and subject to
inundations. Previous to the selection of Chacra as the provincial
capital, the seat of government was at San Juan de Londres, founded in
1558 and named after the capital of England by order of Philip II. in
honour of his marriage with Queen Mary. The arid surroundings of Londres
led to its partial abandonment and it is now a mere village. Cholla, a
suburb of Catamarca, is inhabited wholly by Calchaqui Indians, a remnant
of the original inhabitants of this region.

CATANIA (Gr. _Katane_, Rom. _Catina_[1]), a city and episcopal see of
Sicily, the chief town of the province of Catania, on the east coast, 59
m. by rail S. of Messina, and 151 m. by rail S.E. of Palermo (102 m.
direct). Pop. (1881) 100,417; (1905) 157,722. The principal buildings
are handsome, and the main streets, meeting in the Piazzo del Duomo, are
fine. The cathedral of S. Agatha, containing the relics of the saint,
retains its three original Norman apses (1091), but is otherwise a large
baroque edifice. The monument of Don Ferrando d'Acunea, a Spanish
viceroy of Sicily, is a fine early Renaissance work (1494). In the west
portion of the town is the huge Benedictine abbe