Ragusa Sights

A medieval hilltown with a split personality in southeastern Sicily

Sights in Upper Ragusa

The centerpiece of the new city, amid the the cafes and shopping at the intersection of Via Roma and Corso V. Veneto, is the unified baroque facade of the Cathedral of San Giovanni (1694).

At the south end of Via Roma is the Museo Archeologico Ibleo, on Via Natalelli at Ponte Nuovo (tel. +39-0932-622-963). Best among the small but worthy collections of vases, terra-cotta figurines, and reconstructed tomb sites are some finds from early 6th century BC Camerina, including an amphora showing Heracles battling the Nubian Lion and a rather phallic terra-cotta sarcophagus lid. There are also several 3,000 year old spear-heads and other Bronze Age finds from Castellucio. It's open daily 9am to 1:30pm and 4:30 to 7:30pm (Adm).

Exploring Ragusa Ibla

Upper Ragusa washes steadily and steeply downhill to the east to the point where Via 24 Maggio meets Corso Mazzini, the Upper Ragusa plateau between gorges abruptly leaves off, and before you spreads an amphitheater of a valley.

From the center of this valley rises a spur comfortably awash in the pale honey stone, implacable medieval silence, and modest baroque palaces that make up the ancient hill-top town of Ragusa Ibla.

A switchbacked road (or endless staircases) take you down to the base of this town, but about halfway down these steps you'll find the tiny church of Santa Maria della Scala (10am to noon and 5 to 7pm). The right (far) aisle inside was built into the cliffside and so survived the 1693 earthquake with a Gagini-carved 15th-century archway, terracotta relief of the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin (1538), and a 13th-century Catalan-Gothic arch.

Ragusa Ibla is its own greatest sight, full of abandoned baroque palazzi whose intricate bulbous balconies busy themselves by slowly crumbling and exuberantly sprouting weeds. At the bottom of the road or steps winding down form Upper Ragusa is the theatrical 17th-century facade of Purgatorio church. Up in the center, on Piazza del Duomo, is the ★ Cathedral of San Giorgio, whose sandwiched 1744 facade sits at the top of a narrow fan of steps. (I know, Ragusa has two cathedrals; until 1929 Upper Ragusa and Ragusa Ibla were actually separate cities.)

Past the piazza's spine of palm trees, Corso XXV Aprile shoots down to Piazza Pola which sports another top baroque facade, this on the church of San Giuseppe (1590). The Corso ends at the entrance to the Giardini Iblei (8am to 2am), a quiet little palm-shaded park the preserves three small churches including the 16th-century Convento dei Cappuccini (open 10am to noon and 5 to 7pm). On Via dei Normanni, just to the right of the giardini entrance, is a little weedy garden fronting the time-bitten remains of a Gothic portal once belonging to San Giorgio Vecchio church.

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