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Double cradle of masterpieces
 A town with very ancient origins, Ragusa is situated at a height varying from the 500 metres above sea level of the original nucleus, Ibla, to the 600 metres of the new part, built in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries in the area called Patro.
Ibla already existed at the time of the Siculi, as we know from tombs in the Gonfalone valley and the funereal remains kept in the local archaeological museum. It was occupied by the Greeks, wbo called it 1-lybla Heraia, to distinguish it from other towns with the same name in south-eastern Sicily. From the Greek epoch there remain various necropoles, on Monte Rito and in the Balatelle, Cortolillo, Cucinello and
Tabuha areas. After the Greeks there came the Romans, who modified the term Jleraia first to Hereum and then to Hereusium; under the Byzantines, the latter name changed into Reusia, which gave the Arabic Ragus and then at last the present-day form Ragusa. With the Normans the town developed a lot, so much so that it became a county town under Geoffrey de Hauteville, the son of Roger I.
There were difficulties in the Hobenstaufen period, in which the county was suppressed; however, it was restored under the Angevins, and went to the powerful Chiaramonte family. With the successors of the latter, the Cabreras, towards the middle of the fifteenth century the main town of the county became Modica. Destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, Ragusa was rebuilt in two separate places, giving rise to two distinct comunes, Ragusa and Ibla, which subsequently were united; then they were again separated, but they were reunited for good in 1926, when Ragusa became a provincial capital. A lot of churches and mansions embellish the town, especially in the Ibla area. Here among all the other monuments there stands out the San Giorgio church, done by Rosario Gagliardi; it is one of the most splendid eighteenth-century Sicflian Baroque churches. Its position in the town, and the fact that the church is set just very slightly at an angle to the palm-decorated square in front of it, make this a very charming building, also enriched with an imposing and artistic wrought iron gate delimiting the access staircase and modulating the rising movement of the whole front. Among other churches in Ibla, we must mention the Capuchin one, which stands at the extremity of the park looking out over the lrminio valley. The church has a magnificent truss roof. In it there is one of the best paintings in the whole Ragusa area, unfortunately not much mentioned by art history scholars: a triptych by Pietro Novelli showing the Madonna in the Assumption amid angels and saints. To the sides of it, there are the images of the Sicilian martyrs Agatha and Lucy. Also at Ibla, though damaged by time and human neglect, there is the Gothic-Catalan portal of the ancient San Giorgio church, which was destroyed by the 1693 earthquake; in the lunette we see St. George killing the dragon. Of great interest, since it is connected to local “material culture’, is the presence, among the other human figures, of the honey maker, a figure typical of the agricultural world of the Ibla area.
 There are plenty of highly artistic patrician mansions: Palazzo Cosentini, decorated with balconies held up by big grotesque ledges depicting animals, monsters and human faces; Palazzo Donnafugata, where there is a fine art gallery with works by major artists, including a Madonna with Child attributed to Antonello da Messina; Palazzo La Rocca, in the Baroque style, with very beautiful balconies; Palazzo Di Quattro; Palazzo Arezzi with its
famous arch; Palazzo della Cancelleria; and so forth.
In the new part of Ragusa there are also beautiful monuments, first of all the cathedral, dedicated to St. John. It has three naves, and a high campanile, and there is a hanging parvis with fine balustrades. Among the excellent works of art inside it, there is a canvas by Sebastiano Conca of San Filippo Neri. The Addolorata and Ecce Homo churches are also interesting. Likewise worthy of attention are Palazzo Lupis and Palazzo Bertini. Special mention must be made of the Prefettura building, in some rooms of which one can admire some paintings by Duilio Cambellotti, done in tempera in the early 1930’s.
 The economy of Ragusa was linked for centuries to agricultural activities, and this is reflected in a clear and striking way in the famous farms and the geometrical network of dry-stone walls in the Ibla plateau. However, in the 1950’s, there arose the euphorious hope of industrial development connected to oil, in addition to the already existing asphalt mining activity. Perhaps not all the hopes that arose at that time have come true, but perhaps it is also true that there were thus avoided the negative effects on the social and cultural texture and way of life that indiscriminate industrialisation has provoked elsewhere. Still today the traditional activities of this place, appropriately updated, are at the basis of the Ragusa economy: agriculture with the introduction of greenhouse production; cattle raising with milk and cheese production, above all the celebrated caciocavallo of Rag usa province.
With neighbouring Syracuse, Ragusa has shared the name ‘pro vincia babba” (silly province) because of the temperament and civil manners of its inhabitants. The town has given birth to many men and women of culture, including the Blessed Maria Schininà and, in our own century, Vann’Antd and the linguist Giorgio Piccitto. Civilisation and natural beauty are still the hallmarks of this town in which the soul of Punic Sicily seems to reach out towards that of Greek Sicily.
Of the San Giorgio church, which is now in ruins, there remain the front and the portal in the Gothic-Catalan style, dating from the second half of the fifteenth century, which has a sculpted embrasure and is surmounted by a low-relief in the lunette of St. George killing the dragon; above, in the lozenges, there are the Aragonese eagles.
The San Giorgio church in Ragusa was built on a project by the architect Rosario Gagliardi, in the years 1744-1775. The starting date is known from an original drawing kept in the sacristy. The church was completed in 1820 with a neo-classical cupola by Carmelo Cutrano. The front features a big flight of steps, which are a highly picturesque element and create a spatial link with the square to the front, showing Gagliardi’s skill in adapting to the urban context available to him. The convex bell tower at the centre, also present in San Giorgio in Modica, confers a rising elan and a vigorous dynamic quality on the facade. The decorative richness of the whole is reinforced by the portal framed by an angular cornice enclosing exuberant sculptures of festoons and putti. The Latin cross interior, with three naves, has its rhythm marked out by stone pillars with Corinthian pilasters on black marble bases, ending with articulated beaming showing virtuoso decorative elements.
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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