RagusaComiso.
Of ancient origin, it was founded, probably in 643 BC, by the Syracusans with the name of Kasmenai. In Byzantine times the hamlet of Comiso began to grow around the Monasteries of San Nicolò and San Biagio, extending later under the Normans and the Aragonese. It was the fief of the Riggios, the Chiaromontes, the Cabreras and, from 1453 to the 18th c., the Nasellis. It was the Nasellis, created Counts in 1571, who boosted the economy of the town and expanded it beyond the ancient mediaeval walls. Comiso was badly damaged by the 1693 earthquake, but was immediately rebuilt according to scenographic baroque urbanistic criteria. In the 1980s a NATO military airport and missile base was built here and Comiso was the scene of numerous pacifist demonstrations and controversial politica/military episodes.

If we arrive at Comiso from Ragusa we see the town from above, with its church domes bright in the sun and the houses spreading out. Further away is the Plain of Vittoria and Gela, and the sea, a long wide panorama, with splashes of green, yellow and blue: "...plains where sulphur was the summer of myths, motionless" (Salvatore Quasimodo). Let us descend towards the town and stop in the centre, where we see the Fountain of Diana, which gives its name to the square. There are clubs, bars and porticoes. Some peoplee met the writer Gesualdo Bufalino here, while others, going in the opposite (artistic) direction, the cultivated painter Salvatore Fiume and the spontaneous painter Francesco Giambarresi, all three of Comiso. Let us now see what else Comiso has to offer. Nearby is an underground Roman thermal building; traces of a mosaic floor have been found (2nd c. AD). The Chiesa Madre, Santa Maria delle Stelle, stands in Piazza delle Erbe. The church was originally built in the 15th c. but was much altered, especially after the 1693 earthquake. It has a nave and two aisles and its decorations are exuberant and striking; those in the nave are 17th c. Over the high altar is the painting of the Nativity of the Virgin, attributed to Carlo Maratta (18th c.). The wooden ceiling is painted with Old Testament scenes. We go down Via Papa Giovanni XXIII and by way of Via degli Studi we come to the 16th c. Chiesa di San Filippo Neri, and the Oratorio, containing paintings by Olivio Sozzi. The Town Library is near here. The Chiesa di San Francesco dates from the 13th c.; a convent with a delightful quadrangular cloister was added in the 15th c. The church was used in the 16th c. as the burial chapel of the Naselli family and it contains the funerary monument of Baldassarre II Naselli, attributed to Antonello Gagini. The chapel is worth visiting because of the elegance of its architecture and the grace of its decoration. The Chiesa dell'Annunziata was built in the 16th c. over a pre-existing Byzantine church; because of the effects of the 1693 earthquake, it was completely reconstructed between 1772 and 1793, assuming, at the top of a striking ramp of stairs, the monumental forms of neoclassical style, with the fine baroque façade by Vaccarini and later, in 1885, the neoclassical cupola by Emanuele Girlando. The interior is decorated with stuccos and there are some fine artistic works: a 15th c. painted wooden statue of St Nicholas, a crucifìx attributed to Fra' Umile da Petralia, paintings by Salvatore Fiume in the apse (Nativity and Resurrection) and at the beginning of the left aisle, a marble font with a bronze representing St John the Baptist, by Mario Rutelli (1912). The Naselli Castle was erected in a dominating position over an octagonal Byzantine construction which possibly in the 14th c. was transfonned into cylindrical shape. The two portals with their pointed arches are interesting, the one in the N part being a 16th c. serliana. The interior shows signs of numerous alterations.