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 The
historical roots of the province of Ragusa are connected to those
of Sicily; its legends, the earliest traces of populations, the
succession of dominations, all leaving a clear sign of their "passage"
in architecture and art of towns and territories.
The
Sicani and the Siculi (XVIII-VIII century b.C.) were the earliest
documented inhabitants of Sicily; then Phoenicians and especially
Greeks, as the earliest actual colonizers (VIII b.C); Romans (III
b.C-II a.C) who made Sicily a Province of the Empire; Byzantines
and Barbarian populations, Goths, Visigoths and Vandals (IV-VIII);
the Arabians (VIII-X) who, like Greeks, impressively promoted the
economical and cultural development of Sicily; the Normans (XI-XIII)
under which Sicily achieved its highest economic, civil and cultural
prosperity; the French Angioini (from the name of their leader Charles
of Anjou.
Here
the province of Ragusa puts on an autonomous identity, becoming
a sort of "reign into the reign".
In
1282 an insurrection, known as the "Vespri Siciliani"
(The Sicilian Vespers) spread across Sicily, eventually determining
the fall of the "bad reigning" of the Anjou's French dynasty.
Sicily became a Province of the Spanish Kingdom of Aragona. King
Pietro III soon promoted a policy of administrative autonomy in
the Island.
So
were born the two Counties of Modica and Ragusa, soon joining under
the only County of Modica after Isabella Mosca and Manfredi Chiaramonte,
respective heirs to the counties, got married.
Actually
the title of Counties for Modica and Ragusa dated from the Norman
rule, in the XI century, but they had soon lost it.
The
Chiaramonte family, somehow descendants of Charlemagne ruled for
over a century, promoting the economic growth of the County and
gaining, through marriages "of convenience" and "power
games", a first-rate role in the political chess-board of Sicily.
Acquisition
of lands and heritages out of the County:
The Signory of Cefalù, the territory of the Marca Anconitana,
the lands of Caccamo and Gulfi.
All
sorts of titles and privileges:
Captain Executioner of Palermo, General Vicar, Grand Seneschal (Manfredi
I); Signor of Nicosia (Giacomo); Vicar (Manfredi III), a very important
office which assigned the govern of one of the four territories
(Vicariates) in which Sicily was shared during King Federico's reign.
In
1392 Giacomo, the last Chiaramonte, was arrested and sentenced to
death for leading a coalition against the king.
So
ended the cycle of this family who became one of the richest and
mightiest in all Sicily and represented an example of that strongest
local power, typical of the feudal period with which the central
power (King, Emperor, Pope) had often to come to terms (like grant
of lands, titles, privileges, etc.) or, at the worst, to fight (Giacomo's
condemnation is an example).
Hence
came the accession of a "new" family: the Cabrera (also
Caprera).
First
Count was Bernardo who took possession of all Chiaramonte's properties
and who brought about a period of serious disorders inside the County,
principally supported by Chiaramonte devoted groups.
Every
attempt of revolt was severely suppressed with murders, tortures
and imprisonments, allowing Bernardo Cabrera to rule and enlarge
the County to the present dimensions of the province of Ragusa:
Areas
of Pozzallo and Santa Croce Camerina; the to-day's areas of Vittoria,
Comiso, Acate. Chiaramonte Gulfi, Giarratana and Monterosso Almo.
The County already comprised the cities of Modica, Ragusa, Scicli,
Spaccaforno (presently Ispica).
Bernardo
was a devoted "vassal" of the King of Sicily, Martino
I Aragona, and entitled Captain of the Army, Viceroy and "Contabile"
of the Kingdom. Martino I was succeeded by his father Martino II
"the old" who died in 1411. Upon his death Bernardo anyway
interfered with the role of Bianca Navarra, Vicar of Sicily and
Martino II's daughter-in-law, bringing about a contrast that lasted
several years, up to the designation of Ferdinando I as King of
Sicily.
Bernardo,
plague-stricken, died that very year (1411), then buried in the
old Cathedral of St. George in Ragusa (in the new one after the
1693 earthquake).
A period of renewed insurrections followed
into the County, people still displeased with Cabrera's politics.
In 1447, in Ragusa, a riot caused the burning of the County's Archives
and the murder of Giovanni Bernardo Cabrera, new Count, who, in
king's honour, had conquered Naples few years before (1442).
Because
of the renewed insurrections the County's Chancelery was transferred
from Ragusa to Modica which thus became the main town in the County.
Giovanni II (1466) and Giannotto(1474) succeeded to Giovanni Bernardo.
A singular event occurred in 1474: a "quarter's crime"
in a Jewish area of Modica (Quarter Cartellone), spread as a general
chase across Sicily and is sadly famous under the appellation of
"Jew's Massacre'.
In
1480 Anna Cabrera, Giannotto's sister, married Federico Henriquez,
descendant of the royal family of Aragona. So began a new cycle
for the County of Modica: that of the Henriquez family, that handed
it down from father to son up to 1702, year in which Giovan Tommaso
Henriquez was executed for rebelling against the kingdom, taking
side with a coalition led by Charles of Austria. On the whole, under
the Henriquez as well as under the predecessor Cabrera (at least
after Bernardo), the County lost the magnificence and the height
gained at the time of the Chiaramonte.
Insurrections
and rebellions constantly occurred during this new cycle as a witness
of subjects' feeling and devotion towards the Count. Yet, it is
worth-mentioning the foundation of the town of Vittoria around 1600,
in Vittoria Colonna's honour, Luigi Henriquez's wife.
Other
far more tragic event was in 1693 a terrible earthquake which devastated
and destroyed territories and entire towns in East Sicily: Catania,
Lentini, Noto, Scicli, Ragusa, Chiaramonte and other towns in the
so-called Noto's Valley were irreparable razed to the ground.
Others
suffered heaviest damages: Modica, Spaccaforno, Niscemi, Vittoria,
etc. The damages were, obviously, catastrophic: over 60,000 victims
and houses, buildings, monuments, works of art and tokens of past
ages and civilizations were forever lost.
The
reconstruction, at least in the fifty years after the earthquake,
anywhere was sumptuous and representative, on the one hand celebrating
the magnificence and power of high aristocracy and Clergy, who "supported"
and promoted the reconstruction, on the other materializing the
pride and strength of towns and people against those of nature.
Giovan
Tommaso's condemnation put an end to the autonomy of the County,
whose title had, from then on, a mere formal meaning under the two
successive dynasties: Alvarez and Fits-Stuart.
Administratively,
the County was directly ruled by the Kingdom, whose destiny the
County shared up to nowadays.
In 1713 the Reign of Sicily was annexed to the Kingdom of Savoia
(though the County still remained a Spanish dominion), in 1720 assigned
to the Empire of Austrian Hapsburg and, in 1734, annexed to the
Borbone's Kingdom of Two Sicilies, comprising the Southern Italy,
until 1861, year of the independence and annexation to the Kingdom
of Italy.
Administratively,
the territory of the by now ex County was controlled by the province
of Siracusa (since Borbone's reign) up to 1926 when Ragusa was made
province of Italy.
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