The province of Ragusa (; ) was a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the autonomous region of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, Italy, located in the southeast of the island. Following the abolition of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by the Free municipal consortium of Ragusa (Italian: ''Libero consorzio comunale di Ragusa''; Sicilian: ''Lìbbiru cunsòrziu cumunali di Rausa''). Its capital is the city of

Ragusa, Sicily Ragusa (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Ragusa, on the island of Sicily, with 73,778 inhabitants as of 2025. It is built on a wide limestone hill between two deep valleys, Cava San Leonardo ...

, which is the most southern provincial capital in Italy. It has 320,976 inhabitants as of 2025.

Geography

From

Scoglitti Scoglitti () is a fishing village and hamlet () of Vittoria, a municipality in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. In 2011 it had a population of 4,175. History Scoglitti found a niche in history after being selected by the Allies as the sit ...

Pozzallo Pozzallo () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. Pozzallo is now a major summer tourist destination: as of March 2020, two beaches in Pozzallo hold a Blue Flag award, presented by the FEE and given to ...

, the Ragusan coastline is approximately long. Along the Ragusan coast are many fishing villages such as

Kaukana Kaukana, also spelled Caucana, is a hamlet (''frazione'') of Santa Croce Camerina, a municipality in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. It is located a few hundred metres from Punta Secca and a few km from Marina di Ragusa. It lies n ...

Punta Secca Punta Secca (), locally nicknamed ''’A Sicca'', is a small southern Italian fishing village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Santa Croce Camerina, a municipality in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily. In 2011 it had a population of 226. History Th ...

Marina di Ragusa Marina di Ragusa, also known as ''Mazzarelli'', is a southern Italian village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Ragusa, a municipality seat of the homonym province, Sicily. In 2025 it had a population of 7,000 which during the summer rises to more t ...

and Marina di Modica. The

Hyblaean Mountains The Hyblaean Mountains (; ; ) is a mountain range in south-eastern Sicily, Italy. It straddles the provinces of Ragusa, Syracuse and Catania. The highest peak of the range is Monte Lauro, at . History The name derives from the Siculi king H ...

are dominating the north of the province and its highest peaks are

Monte Lauro Mount Lauro is a mountain reaching 986 metres located in south-eastern Sicily belonging to the chain of Hyblaean Mountains, stretching between the three provinces of Catania, Ragusa and Siracusa. Monte Lauro is part of a complex of extinct volc ...

Monte Casale Monte Casale is a mountainous elevation on Sicily in Italy, reaching 910m above sea level, which (with the neighbouring Monte Lauro) formed part of the oldest volcanic formation of the Hyblaean Mountains. Their peaks form the boundary between ...

and

Monte Arcibessi Monte Arcibessi is a mountain located in the Sicilian province of Ragusa and is one of the highest peaks in the Hyblaen Mountain chain. It stretches between the Chiaramonte Gulfi and Ragusa communes. With its adjacent mountains, Monte Arcibessi ...

. The rivers of the province are the

Irminio The Irminio (; ; ) is a long river located in south-eastern Sicily, southern Italy. It is the most important of the rivers of the province of Ragusa. The river springs from Monte Lauro, the main peak of the Hyblaean Mountains, which form the ...

Dirillo The Dirillo, or Acate, is a river in Sicily which springs from the Hyblaean Mountains and flows through the areas of Vizzini, Licodia Eubea, Mazzarrone, Chiaramonte Gulfi, Acate, Vittoria, Gela. It enters the Strait of Sicily south-east of ...

and

Ippari The Ippari, anciently called the ''Hipparis'' () is a long river located in the province of Ragusa in south-eastern Sicily. The river rises in the ''Mount Serra Brugio'' area of the Hyblaean Mountains, just below Chiaramonte Gulfi at a height of ...

and the only lake in the province is the

Lago di Santa Rosalia Lago di Santa Rosalia is an artificial lake in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. The ''Lago di Santa Rosalia'' is the only lake of the province of Ragusa. Dam The lake was created following the completion of building works of a dam 57,10m t ...

along the course of the Irminio river. The skyline of Ragusa is punctuated by the

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

s and

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

s of the many churches for which the

is known. The area is mostly unspoilt, as during the 19th century and early 20th century there was large migration from Ragusa to the more prosperous areas of Italy and abroad. It has an area of and a population of 320,976 as of 2025.

Communes

There are 12

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

s in the provinc

(see List of municipalities of the Province of Ragusa, comunes of the province of Ragusa). By population, they are:

Demographics

Economy

Parts of the province have changed dramatically in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, largely due to tourism. However, others are relatively unchanged from pre-industrial times. Main productive activities can be found in the towns of Ragusa and Pozzallo, where the two major industrial areas are located. The west and south of the province are mainly dedicated to the

intensive farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of arable farming, crop plants and of Animal husbandry, animals, with higher levels ...

in greenhouses and the local vegetables leave from the ''Market of Vittoria'' to be exported to all of Europe making the province of Ragusa one of the biggest producers of greenhouse produce. In the areas around Ragusa and Modica cattle farming is at the highest levels in the region for milk, dairy and meat production.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

has now replaced the

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

as the principal source of

employment Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

along the coast.

Transports

*There are no motorways in the province and the main roads are the ''National'' SS.115 that crosses from west (

Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the regional autonomy, Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province o ...

) to east (

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

) and the SS.514 that running north connects Ragusa to

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

. The SP.25 (''Provincial Road'') runs south from Ragusa to

. *The of railway network of the province are entirely on single track and not electrified. Regional trains run regularly connecting the major cities. *

Comiso Airport Comiso Airport "Pio La Torre" , also known as ''Vincenzo Magliocco Airport'', is an airport located in the town of Comiso in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. The airport serves Comiso (), Ragusa (), Vittoria and Gela. It changed from mil ...

during the cold-war was the biggest

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

base in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and has recently been refurbished to be converted from military to civil airport. *The

Port of Pozzallo The Port of Pozzallo is the major port of the province of Ragusa on the Mediterranean coast of Sicily and is one of the most important harbours on the island. The port was initially designed for a volume of goods of only 500.000 tons a year but to ...

is the only cargo and passengers port (service to

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

), and is located in the southern part of the province. *The other ports are either fishing ports like

and

Donnalucata Donnalucata () is a southern Italian fishing village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Scicli, a municipality in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily. In 2011 it had a population of 3,172. History The area has been inhabited since Greek and Phoenician times ...

or ''Marinas'' for touristic boats like

and

Main sights

Baroque

The cities of

Ragusa Ragusa may refer to: Places Croatia * Ragusa, Dalmatia, the historical name of the city of Dubrovnik * the Republic of Ragusa (or Republic of Dubrovnik), the maritime city-state of Ragusa * Ragusa Vecchia, historical Italian name of Cavtat, a t ...

Modica Modica (; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. The city is situated in the Hyblaean Mountains. It has 53,413 inhabitants. Modica has neolithic origins and it represents the historical cap ...

and

Scicli Scicli is a town and municipality in the Province of Ragusa in the south east of Sicily, southern Italy. It is from Ragusa, and from Palermo, and has a population (2017) of 27,051. Alongside seven other cities in the Val di Noto, it has been l ...

contain many examples of baroque architecture and from 2002 are part of the

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The main monuments are: * Cathedral of San Giovanni (Ragusa) *Portal of San Giorgio (Ragusa Ibla) * Duomo of San Giorgio (Ragusa Ibla) * San Giorgio Cathedral, Modica *Duomo of San Pietro (Modica) *Church of San Bartolomeo (Scicli) *Palazzo Beneventano (Scicli)

Archeology

*The main archeological site of the province is the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

city of Kamarina located on the coast. *Others are

Kasmenai Casmenae or Kasmenai (, Casmene in Italian) was an ancient Greek colony of Magna Graecia located on the Hyblaean Mountains, founded in 644 BC by the Syracusans at a strategic position for the control of central Sicily. It was also intended ...

Akrillai Akrillai () and Akrilla (), Acrillae (in Latin) was an ancient Greek colony of Magna Graecia located in the modern province of Ragusa, Sicily, Italy, where the town of Chiaramonte Gulfi stands today. The ruins of the old colony can be found in t ...

, Scornavacche,

(Roman), the ''Roman Baths'' of

Comiso Comiso () is a ''comune'' of the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Southern Italy. As of 2017, its population was 29,857. History In the past Comiso has been incorrectly identified with the ancient Greek colony of Casmene in Magna Graecia. Under the B ...

and the Cava Ispica.

Castles

*''Castle of Donnafugata'', near

, is a beautiful example of country residence of the ''Baron Corrado Arezzo'' that dominates the surrounding countryside. *''Castle of the Counts of Modica'' in

town centre. *''Castle of Naselli d’Aragona'' in

dating to 1576. *Ruins of the fortress of ''Parco Forza'' in

Ispica Ispica (, ) is a city and ''comune'' in the south of Sicily, Italy. It is from Ragusa, from Syracuse, and away from La Valletta, on the coast of Malta. The first mention in a document of Ispica occurred in 1093, in a list of churches and ...

. *

Acate Acate ( Sicilian: ''Acati'' or ''Vischiri'') is a small town and ''comune'' in the south of Sicily, Italy, part of the province of Ragusa. It is located in the Dirillo River valley, from Ragusa. Until 1938 it was called Biscari, and its hist ...

is housing the ''Castle of the Prince of Biscari'' constructed originally in 1494, it is a commanding feature of the

town square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...

. The construction of the castle was ordered by ''Baron Guglielmo Raimondo Paternò'', its golden coloured stone work has been modified many times during its long history, it now appears more as an 18th-century

palazzo A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

than a castle, although some crenelations and towers remain.

References

External links

*
Official website

The province of Ragusa
*

* ttp://www.ragusainrete.it Ragusa on line {{DEFAULTSORT:Province Of Ragusa