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The crucifix by Friar Umile
 Placed on a hill whose sinuous contours it follows, Monterosso Almo is the northernmost place in Ragusa province. It has an essentially agricultural economy and is quite well-known for some products, including cherries and dairy produce, especially cottage cheese, which every year is at the centre of a festival.
The Monterosso Almo territory was inhabited started from prehistoric times: we know this from remains on Monte Casasia and above all from the big hypogean chamber at Calaforno, which seems to date from the Copper Age. The name Monte Almo was already given to the place in the Norman period; subsequently, it was also called Rosso, from the name of Count Enrico Rosso di Aidone, and it was part of the Modica county. Destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, the little town was soon rebuilt. Among the main monuments there are the cathedral church, a national monument in the the neo-Gothic style, in which there is kept a magnificent wooden crucifix by Friar Umile da Petralia, and a fifteenth-century silver processional cross. Another national monument is the Sant’Antonio Abate church, in which some paintings of great value are kept, like the Martyrdom of St. Laurence and the Madonna of the Carmine, and two fifteenth-century holy water fonts. A work commonly attributed to Vincenzo Sinatra is the church of St. John Baptist, patron saint of the town.
Regarding non-religious buildings, we must mention Palazzo Cocuzza and Palazzo Zacco.
 In the environs of the town it is worth visiting the so-called ‘Saints grottoes’, where one can admire some medieval paintings with images of saints and a fascinating Crucifixion, u nfortunately very much damaged by time and man. Another excursion should be made to the valley of the river Amerillo, better known as the Valley of Mills, because of the presence, in ancient times, of various corn mills.
The front of San Giovanni is one of the last expressions of the type incorporating the bell tower. The date recorded as the conclusion of the facade is 1877. In the lblei area the strong artisanal building tradition continued, until the late nineteenth century, to quote the themes in the big fronts done in the previous century. Thus at Monterosso the composition, in the framework of free columns and accentuated verticality, reminds one of San Giorgio in Ragusa, while the theme of the dedicatory statue placed in the big central window echoes a custom which began in Syracuse cathedral.
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
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