SANTA MARIA DI LICODIA, a village of Sicily, in the province of Catania, 18 m. N.W. of Catania by rail, on the S.W. slopes of Mount Etna. Pop. (1901) 4101. It is believed to occupy the site of the ancient Aetna, a settlement founded by the colonists whom Hiero I. had placed at Catania after their expulsion by the original inhabitants in 461 B.C., which absorbed or incorporated an already existing Sicel town named Inessa. Its subsequent history is uneventful, though it suffered from the ex actions of Verres; and its inscriptions are unimportant. A large hoard of coins was found here in 1891. Near it, in a district called Civita, is a large elliptical area of about 1300 by 380 yds., enclosed by a wall of masses of lava, which is about 28 ft. wide at the base, and 11 ft. high. The ground is covered with fragments of tiles and pottery of the classical period, and it is probably a hastily built encampment of historic times rather than a primitive fortification, as there are no prehistoric traces (Orsi in Notizie degli scavi, 1903, 442).
See Casagrandi, Su due antiche città sicule Vesta ed Inessa (Acireale, 1892).
SANTA MARTA, a city and port of Colombia and the capital
of a department of the same name, on a small bay 40 m. E.N.E.
of the mouth of the Magdalena river. Pop. (1908) about 6500.
It is built partly on the beach and partly on the slopes of the
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta towards the S.E. Though small,
the harbour is one of the best and safest on the coast, as no river
flows into it to fill its anchorage with silt. The depth ranges
from 18 to 19 fathoms at the entrance to 4½ fathoms along the
inner shore line. The city is an episcopal see and has a
cathedral. A railway (23 m.) runs southward a little beyond
Cienaga (on a large lagoon of the same name), connects with
steamers running to Barranquilla (50 m. farther) by way of the
lagoon and inland channels, and is to be extended to San
Carlos, farther S., as the fruit-growing industry of this region is
developed.
Santa Marta was founded by Rodrigo de Bastidas in 1525, and became an important port and centre of trade during the Spanish colonial era. It was also a base of operations in the exploration and conquest of the interior.
SANTA MAURA, or LEUCADIA (Λευκάδα, ancient Λευκάς), one
of the Ionian Islands, with an area of 110 sq. m. and a population
of about 30,000. It lies off the coast of Acarnania (Greece),
immediately south of the entrance to the Gulf of Arta. The
shallow strait separating it from the mainland is liable to be
blocked by sand-banks; a canal was cut through these in the
7th century B.C. by the Corinthians, and was again after a long
period of disuse opened up by the Romans.
During the British occupation a canal for boats of 4 to 5 ft. draught was formed from Fort Santa Maura to the town, but the 16 ft. deep ship canal which it was proposed (1844) to carry right across the lagoon or submerged isthmus to Fort Alexander was only partially excavated. In 1903, however, a canal was completed rendering navigable the channel between the island and the mainland. Its breadth is 50 ft. and its depth 17, ft. Santa Maura, measuring about 20 m. from north to south and 5 to 8 m. in breadth, is a rugged mass of limestone and bituminous shales (partly Tertiary), rising in its principal ridges to heights of 2000 and 3000 ft. and presenting very limited areas of level ground. The grain crop suffices only for a few months' local consumption; but considerable quantities of olive oil of good quality are produced. The vineyards (in the west especially) yield much red wine (bought mainly by Rouen, Cette, Trieste and Venice); the currant, introduced about 1859, has gradually come to be the principal source of wealth (the crop averaging 2,500,000 lb); and small quantities of cotton, flax, tobacco, valonia, &c., are also grown. The salt trade, formerly of importance, has suffered from' .Greek customs regulations. The chief town (5000 inhabitants), properly called Amaxikhi or Hamaxichi but more usually Santa Maura, after the neighbouring fort, is situated at the N.E. end of the island opposite the lagoon. In the S.W. is the village of Vasiliki, whence the currant crop is exported.
Remains of Cyclopean and polygonal walls exist at Kaligoni (south of Amaxikhi), probably the site of the ancient acropolis of Neritus (or Nericus), and of the later and lower Corinthian settlement of Leucas. From this point a Roman bridge seems to have crossed to the mainland. Between the town and Fort Santa Maura extends a remarkably line Turkish aqueduct partly destroyed along with the town by the earthquake of 1825. Forts Alexander and Constantine commanding the bridge are relics of the Russian occupation; the other forts are of Turko-Venetian origin. The magnificent cliff, some 2000 ft. high, which forms the southern termination of the modern island still bears the substructions of the temple of Apollo Leucatas (hence the modern name Capo Ducato). At the annual festival of Apollo a criminal was obliged to plunge from the summit into the sea, where, however, an effort was made to pick him up; and it was by the same heroic leap that Sappho and Artemisia, daughter of Lygdamis, are said to have ended their lives.
A theory has been proposed by Professor Dorpfeld that Leucas is the island described in the Odyssey under the name of Ithaca; in support of this theory he quotes the fact that the Homeric description of the island and its position, and also the identification of such sites as the palace of Odysseus, the harbour of Phorcys, the grotto of the Nymphs and the island Asteris, where the suitors lay in wait for Telemachus, suit Leucas far better than the island called Ithaca in classical and modern times.
See under Corfu; also P. Goessler, Leukas-Ithaka (Stuttgart, 1904).
SANTANDER, a maritime province of northern Spain, bounded
N. by the Bay of Biscay, E. by the province of Biscay, S. by
Burgos and Palencia, and W. by Leon and Oviedo. Pop. (1900)
276,003; area 2108 sq. m. The province is traversed from east
to west by the Cantabrian Mountains (q.v.), which in the Penas de
Europa reach a height of over 8600 ft., and send off numerous
branches to the sea. On the north side of the range the streams
are all short, the principal being the Ason, the Miera, the Pas,
the Besaya, the Saja and the Nansa, which flow into the Bay of
Biscay; part of the province lies south of the watershed, and
is drained by the upper Ebro (q.v.). The province is traversed
from north to south by the railway and high road from Santander
by Palencia to Madrid; the highest point on the railway (Venta
de Pazozal) is 3229 ft. above the sea. Other railways connect
Santander with Bilbao on the east and with Cabezona de la Sal
on the west; there are also many good state, provincial and
municipal roads, besides several narrow-gauge mining railways.
Santander was part of the Roman province of Cantabria,
which, after passing under the empire of the Goths, became the
principality of Asturias (q.v.). The portion called Asturia de
Santa Iuliana, or Santillana, was included in the kingdom of Old
Castile, and, on the subdivision of the old provinces 'of Spain in
1833, became the province of Santander.
SANTANDER (ancient Portus Blendium or Fanum S. Andreae), the capital of the Spanish province of Santander, the seat of a bishop and one of the chief seaports of Spain; 316 m. by rail N. of Madrid, in 43° 27' N. and 3° 47' W., on the Bay of Santander, an inlet of the Bay of Biscay. Pop. (1900) 54,564. It is situated on the inside of a rocky peninsula, Cabo Mayor, which shelters a magnificent harbour from 2 to 3 m. wide and 4 m. long. The entrance is at the eastern extremity of the promontory, and is deep, broad, and illuminated by lighthouses on Cabo Mayor and the rocky islet of Mouro. Santander is the terminus of railways from Valladolid and Bilbao, of a branch line from Cabezona de la Sal, and of several mining railways. It is divided into an upper and a lower town. The cathedral, originally Gothic of the 13th century, has been so altered that little of the old work remains. In the crypt, or Capilla del Cristo de Abajo, is an interesting font of Moorish workmanship. The castle of San Felice contains a prison, which was one of the first examples of the radiating system of construction. The city is essentially modern; its principal buildings are the markets, barracks, theatre, bull-ring, clubs, civil and military governors' residences, custom house, hospitals, nautical school, ecclesiastical seminary, and training school for teachers. Many of the houses on the bay front and public buildings were restored after the catastrophe of the 3rd of November 1893, when the steamer “Cabo Machichaco,” laden with 1700 Cases of dynamite, blew up near the quay. The harbour was greatly improved during the second half of the 19th century. In the same period the population nearly trebled, and there was a corresponding development of commerce and manufactures.
