Itineraries
The 12 Comunes
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Precious stone for master stonecutters

The origins of Comiso date back to the Siculo-Greek era. A commonly accepted hypothesis is that the town, at that time Yhomisus Kasmenarum, was founded by the inhabitants of Casmene, destroyed in 212 B.C. by the Roman consul Marcellus, who decided to punish not only Syracuse but its daughter towns too. The original nucleus grew up around the fountain of Diana, at the point where, in the centre of present-day Comiso, in the second century AD. there arose the Roman thermae. From the medieval period we have vestiges of the Gothic-Catalan style, though sometimes overwhelmed by Renaissance and eighteenth-century alterations.

Among the most important religious edifices in Comiso are the cathedral church, dedicated to Santa Maria delle Stelle, and the Annunziata church. The cathedral church is characterised by a facade whose elan has a counterpart in the ascending rhythm of the Gothic lines of the cupola; the wooden ceiling is enriched with eighteenth-century frescos. It is worth paying a visit to the Capuchin church, in the southern part of the little town; in it there is kept a precious wooden tabernacle with tortoiseshell inlays and leather friezes; beside it there is a cemetery, in which there are kept some mummies of religious and lay people similar to those in the Capuchin cemetery in Palermo. The San Francesco church, built in the fourteenth century, is in Gothic-Catalan style; inside it there is kept a marble sarcophagus dedicated to Gaspare II Naselli, Count of Comiso, whose Gagini-school statue elegantly rests on top of the monument; next to the church is an elegant fifteenth-century cloister. In the northern part of the town there is the Naselli dAragona castle, an imposing construction formed by a series of buildings from different epochs.

The very fertile territory around Comiso has always favoured the economic development of the town, especially today with the production of vegetables and fruit with up-to-date technical means in the coastal area. A very ancient form of artisanal activity relates to the processing of sc-called Comiso stone, a calcareous Miocene rock with compact grain and an intense straw-yellow colour. The abundant presence of this marble has always favoured the work of artisans and master stonecutters. People born in Comiso include Biagic Pace, Salvatore Fiume and Gesualdo Bufalino.

Naselli castle is certainly the most precious fragment of non-religious architecture from the sixteenth century that has been preserved in Ragusa province. Though it probably underwent massive restoration after the 1693 earthquake by the Genoan engineer Michelangelo Cannepa, it has numerous characteristics belonging to the late sixteenth century. In particular the keep (dated 1576 in a tablet) echoes lofty themes of classicism. One should note the smooth boss decoration of the crenels, while the insertion, for celebratory purposes, of sculptural heads (perhaps from the Roman epoch) inside the tympanums presents analogies with edifices from the Lombard area (Palazzo Marino in Milan), revealing unexpected links with distant environments and cultures.

Testi © Azienda Autonoma Provinciale per l'Incremento Turistico di Ragusa
Via Capitano Bocchieri, 33 - 97100 RAGUSA
tel. 0932 221511 - fax 0932 221555

Foto © Studio Scivoletto