Ragusa.
The name of the city comes from the ancient Hybla
Heraia, a Sicel town hellenized in the 6th c. BC that
has been identified as the modem Hibla, Ragusa Inferiore,
the oldest part, which with the older part, Ragusa
Superiore, separated by valleys, forms the modem city.
Heraia gave rise to the names Hereum, Heresium, Re’sa,
Raccusa or Rag’s and, in the end, Ragusa. The
various necropolises in the area indicate that the
zone was already inhabited in the third millennium
BC, and more intensively (oven-type tombs in the valleys)
in the 9th and 8th c. BC. The arrival of the Greeks
led to further development, thanks also to the nearby
port of Camerina, q.v. The city was then occupied
by the Carthaginians and later, without resistance,
by the Romans who accordingly declared it a decuman
city. From the 4th c. and five further centuries,
it was dorninated by the Byzantines. In 868, after
a series of raids, it was finally conquered by the
Muslims, and later, when it passed to the Normans,
it was assigned in 1091 by Count Roger to his son
Geoffrey, who populated the city with Calabrians from
Cosenza (which rerninds us of the multiple origins,
near and far, of modern-day Sici1ians). With the Chiaromonte
family in the 14th c., and until the 16th c., the
city layout was redesigned, with the addition, here
as elsewhere, of buildings belonging to the religious
orders. With the Swabians, the Angevins, the Aragonese
(who made it a County which was granted to Giovanni
Prefolio, the local leader of the anti-French revolt
of the Sicilian Vespers ) and later with the Cabreras
and the granting of territories in perpetual lease
in 1452, the city achieved a degree of development
and prosperity that continued to increase with the
passing years. When Ragusa was devastated by an earthquake
in 1693, the new agricultural ruling class immediately
decided to build a new city, beyond the valley, on
the other hill, known as Patro, while it was only
in 1730 that the old feudal nobility initiated the
reconstruction of the destroyed Hibla, which had however
maintained its administrative autonomy. The year 1838
saw the discovery of deposit of asphalt deposits,
still exploited today. In 1865 the twin towns became
autonomous Communes, but were again reunited in 1926
and jointly created Provincial Capital in 1927.
Home
