Ragusa Cathedral
Since 2002 the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista has been considered by UNESCO an ineffable treasure chest of magnificence of the city of Ragusa, declared "World Heritage”, together with the large historic center, which extends from Ibla towards the upper part of the city, considered <.
Its construction began to see the light immediately after the terrible "Earthquake tu ranni”, of 11 January 1693, thanks to the “massari”, a new class on the rise who wanted to rebuild the church 'total diruta' in a completely new site and on the plateau that extends above the ancient church of Santa Maria delle Scale.
The typical Latin cross plan facing east was chosen, divided into three naves by majestic columns today plastered with richly sculpted capitals by the master builder Carmelo Cultraro in 1731 and subsequently gilded. In the first half of early nineteenth century the altars of the side aisles originally in richly carved and gilded limestone, the work of the Ragusan carvers of the Cultraro family, were transformed into chapels, in which sober altars in polychrome marble were placed. At the crossing of the transept with the central nave, in the 1783, the dome was raised which, covered in the twentieth century with a cover of copper plates.
The majestic facade, rich in carvings and sculptures and divided into five parties by large columns, on high plinths, and by features pilasters ashlars that are also repeated on the sides of the building, is enriched by three portals: the central one is decorated with columns and statues of exquisite workmanship representing the Immaculate Conception, the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. In the second order, more modest than the first, two large ones stand out sundials dated 1751 (the one on the left measures time in “Italian hours”: from sunset to sunset; the one on the right in “French hours”: from midnight to midnight).
On the left side of the prospectus stands the bell tower which rises for about fifty meters (of the bell tower that was to be built on the right side only the base was built in 1820).
In front there is a large churchyard, raised above the square below and surrounded by a balustrade in pitch stone built in 1745.
