Ragusa Cathedral
The San Giovanni Battista Cathedral is the cathedral of the Ragusa Roman Catholic Diocese and one of the main monuments of Ragusa, Sicily.
History
A San Giovanni Battista church, before the 1693 Sicily earthquake, stood in the west of the old town of Ragusa (Ragusa Ibla) under the walls of a medieval castle, where now it stands the church of St. Agnes.[1]
Severely damaged by the earthquake, it was rebuilt at the center of the new upper town of Ragusa in the district of "Patro".[1] On 15 April 1694 the foundation stone was laid and the church was full after just four months, so that on August 16 the same year, it was opened for worship in a solemn ceremony which was attended by all the elders of the County. The short time it took for the building indicates that it was a small church, inadequate to the needs of the new district.[1]
In 1718, therefore, the construction on the site of a larger church began.[1] Two master builders of Acireale, Giuseppe Recupero and Giovanni Arcidiacono, oversaw the project, and some architectural details of the prospects of the San Giovanni church are typical of the baroque monuments of Acireale and Catania, such as the Baroque style rusticated pilasters or the monumental main entrance (which has significant similarities with the marble door of the Cathedral of Acireale).[1]
The interior dates from the 19th and 20th centuries.[2] In 1950 the church became the cathedral of the diocese.[2]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Giuseppe Antoci. I monumenti del tardo barocco di Ragusa. Nonsolografica editrice, 2003.
- 1 2 Giuseppe Bellafiore. La civiltà artistica della Sicilia dalla preistoria ad oggi. Le Monnier 1963. p. 234.
External links
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Coordinates: 36°55′33″N 14°43′43″E / 36.9257°N 14.7287°E