Ragusa Cathedral

About

The Cathedral of Ragusa, in Italian the Duomo di Ragusa or Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista, rises at the centre of the upper town of Ragusa in southeastern Sicily. The present church dates from the early eighteenth century and has served as the seat of the Bishops of Ragusa since the diocese was established in 1950.

An earlier church of San Giovanni Battista had stood in the western part of the old town, Ragusa Ibla, beneath the walls of a medieval castle, on the spot where the church of Saint Agnes now stands. That earlier building was severely damaged by the catastrophic Sicily earthquake of 1693, which devastated the towns of the Val di Noto. With its old site abandoned, the parish was rebuilt in the new upper town in the district known as Patro.

The foundation stone of the first reconstruction was laid on 15 April 1694, and a small church was opened for worship just four months later, on 16 August of the same year. That building soon proved too modest for the growing district, and in 1718 the construction of a larger church began on the same site. Two master builders from Acireale, Giuseppe Recupero and Giovanni Arcidiacono, oversaw the new project, and details such as its monumental Baroque entrance with rusticated columns recall the churches of Acireale and Catania.

The interior largely dates from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and in 1950 the church was elevated to the dignity of cathedral when the new Diocese of Ragusa was created.

History

The parish's earlier church stood in the old quarter of Ragusa Ibla until the great Sicily earthquake of 1693 left it in ruins. Its congregation rebuilt in the new upper town, laying the foundation stone on 15 April 1694 and opening a first, modest church within four months. That building soon proved too small, and in 1718 the present, larger church rose in its place under the Acireale builders Giuseppe Recupero and Giovanni Arcidiacono, whose rusticated Baroque portal still recalls the cathedrals of Acireale and Catania. The church was raised to cathedral rank in 1950 with the founding of the Diocese of Ragusa.

Significance

Saint John the Baptist is honoured here twice each year, once in June for his nativity and again in August for his martyrdom, when the whole city gathers behind his relic in a procession of candles that closes the feast. The cathedral's tall bell tower and dome, visible across the rooftops of Ragusa Ibla below, remain the skyline by which the old town still orients itself.

Architecture

Sicilian Baroque; rusticated stone portal and bell tower in the manner of Acireale and Catania