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Ragusa
Modica, nearby, is also a World Heritage Site, with its 100 Baroque churches forming a series of backdrops in a maze of tiny up-and-down streets, like theatre settings. Built of pale honey-coloured limestone after the 1693 earthquake, but of very ancient origin, Modica reached its moment of greatest glory in the 16th century, when it was an important cultural centre and one of the largest and most powerful cities on the island, called the 'Venice of Sicily' for its position at the confluence of two rivers, acting as waterways for the transport of people and goods. The rivers were covered after a disastrous flood in 1902, and are now the main streets. The town with its various districts is formed of two parts, Modica Bassa, at the foot of the church of San Pietro, and Modica Alta, dominated by the church and monumental stairway of San Giorgio. Modica was the birthplace of Nobel-Prizewinning poet Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-68). The people are proud of their excellent cuisine, based on the use of prime-quality local produce and fish from the sea. More World Heritage Baroque palaces and churches can be admired in the nearby towns of Scicli, Ispica and Comiso, while Chiaramonte Gulfi, famed for its olive oil and numerous museums, and Santa Croce Camerina, site of ancient Kamarina, are well worth a visit. Close to Santa Croce Camerina is Donnafugata (open 9.30-12.30, Sun and holidays also 3.30-6.30, closed Mon), a lovely old country house with 122 rooms, completely rebuilt by the eccentric baron Corrado Arezzo De Spuches in the 19th century, and often used as a film setting. To top of page |
Ragusa Ibla and Ragusa Superiore
stand on a limestone plateau, deeply
scored by its waterways, which have formed canyons and gorges luxuriant
with vegetation in their depths. Ibla is of ancient origin; it is the Sicel
Hybla Heraea. Devastated by the 1693 earthquake, which killed 5,000 people,
the wealthy aristocracy decided to rebuild the city where it was, with a
new cathedral dedicated to their patron St George, while the equally wealthy
middle class preferred to build Ragusa Superiore, a new city close by, with
its own cathedral, dedicated to St John the Baptist. The resulting cities,
with their splendid late Baroque churches and palaces in creamy-gold limestone,
represent in their quality and consistency a vivid final flowering of the
style in Italy, and have been recognised by the UNESCO as World Heritage
Sites. There was intense rivalry between the two Ragusas until 1926, when
they were finally united as one city, with one bishop and one official cathedral,
the solemnly elegant San Giovanni Battista, with its wide façade,
in Ragusa Superiore. From here, a spectacular walk leads south to the town
limit on the edge of the plateau, and thence down through Ibla, a seemingly
interminable sequence of stepped streets, passing little churches and decrepit
palaces, to the soaring, breathtaking grandeur of San Giorgio.