Corsaro Etna Hotel - Mount Etna, Sicily - Living beneath the Volcano

The Corsaro Etna Hotel stands on the 1983 lava field beneath Mount Etna's snow-covered slopes, while clouds drift across the upper volcano.

The Corsaro Etna Hotel stands amid the dark lava fields of Mount Etna, dwarfed by the snow-covered volcanic ridges and cloud-shrouded upper slopes rising behind it. Situated at approximately 2,000 metres on Etna's southern flank, the hotel was rebuilt directly on lava produced by the destructive eruption of 1983. The Corsaro family's original restaurant and accommodation had occupied this high-altitude location for decades before lava reached the building on 1 April 1983. During the following days, the structure was torn from its foundations and eventually disappeared beneath the advancing lava. Reconstruction began in 1985 on the new lava field, with the present hotel completed during the 1990s. Today the building stands only a short distance from the Etna cable car and the Rifugio Sapienza tourist area. In this winter view, the hotel provides a striking sense of scale beneath the volcano and illustrates the unusual relationship between human activity and the continually changing landscape of one of the world's most active volcanoes.