[ July 2017 ] We visited the cathedral in Ragusa Speriore, the newer part in Ragusa in the south of Sicily in Italy.
It was built between 1718 and 1778 and its full name is The Catheral dedicated to San Giavanni Battista.
The highlight here is the floor.
According to our guide, there used to be oil under the ground in this region and the stone from the stratum before reaching the oil about 600 metres deep is used here.
This stone contains some oil and it will be liquidized when it is heated to 200 degrees and when it is polished it shines black.
He said that the design of the floor here is made up with this stone called Pietra Pece as the black background and the marble from Comiso (the town where the nearest airport is) as the white patterns.
After taking many photos of the floor, we moved on down the Corso Italia street to get to Ragusa Ibla, the old town.
The view of Ragusa Ibula opened out before our eyes and was so spectacular that I could not help calling out.
This view reminded me of Matera we went before with layers of old crumbling houses in quiet colours like grey and beige.
I love this kind of view.
If I could paint, I would sit here all day and paint this view.
On this spot of the great view, there is the oldest church in Ragusa called The Church of Santa Maria delle Scale.
It is a small church built in the 13th century and we saw the 15th century arcade which survived the earthquake of 1693.
After that we went over the valley and parked at the Republic Square (Piazza della Reppublica) and walked around there.
By the way, Ragusa is one of the towns listed in the UNESCO World Heritage as “Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto” .
I do not have any knowledge about the history of architecture, but the Late Baroque buildings were rather gaudy from my point of view.
Especially the balconies; they were special, with decorative railings and intricate stone works supporting them.
It happened that they were having a photo exhibition in Palazzo Cosentini near the Republic Square, so we went in to have a look.
Inside was unexpectedly simple.
This house was apparently built in the late 18th century as an aristocrat’s mansion.
The exhibited photos were works by various photographers and they were mainly scenes from all over the world artistically captured.
I felt nostalgic seeing the scenes of London near our house which felt a little out of place here.
We also went in to the church next to this house whose name was The Church of Santa Maria dell’Itria.
Its blue dome was lovely.
This church apparently belonged to Order of the Knights of Malta and we saw the Maltese Cross inside.
Malta is another country but from the port of Pozzallo which is south of Ragusa, it takes only one and a half ours by ferry to Malta.
