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Sicily

The town is a production center of pottery, particularly maiolica and terra-cotta wares.

Nowadays, the production is more and more oriented to artistic production of ceramics and terra-cotta sculptures. Note the ceramic heads in the center. The next two photos tells the story of this couple.

The legend of the Moorish head goes back in the XI century,. One day, a beautiful and honorable young girl was taking care of plants and flowers in the balcony of her house Suddenly, a Moor merchant who was passing by, fell in love with the beautiful girl who immediately returned his love. They started having a love story until when she discovered he already had a wife and children waiting for him . She went suddenly crazy of jealousy and one night, while he was sleeping she thought of a way to make him stay with her forever! . She therefore cut off his head and cleverly decided to use it as a vase to grow her beautiful basil plant.

People walking by her balcony started looking at her flourishing plant of basil and became jealous of how bloomed her plants were, so they began to forge colorful clay heads pots wishing to have the same magic green thumb. Today there are several varieties of ceramic heads, but the traditional ones show a black man and a beautiful girl. Thus if you look at athe balconies you will see the head with basil or flowers coming out of the top of the head.

Clock on the city hall.. look at the detail

The flowers and the green plants are placed individually for design and color. Magnificent.

The bridge system in Sicily is really interesting to look at.

Throughout the city of Ragusa are signs like this telling where important places are to see. Also is the distance inminutes to see.

Throughout the world are plaques similar to this from the local Rotary Club telling what project they have proudly worked on for their community. I happen to be a Rotarian in the town I live Oceanside, CA.

Ragusa is a city in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Ragusa, on the island of Sicily, with 73,288 inhabitants in 2016. It is built on a wide limestone hill between two deep valleys, Cava San Leonardo and Cava Santa Domenica.

In 1693 Ragusa was devastated by a huge earthquake, which killed some 5,000 inhabitants. Following this catastrophe the city was largely rebuilt, and many Baroque buildings from this time remain in the city. Most of the population moved to a new settlement in

The former district of Upper Ragusa, Ragusa Superiore, and the ancient city Lower Ragusa,. Ragusa Ibla, the two cities remained separated until 1926, when they were fused together to become a provincial capital in 1927 at the expense of Modica, the former capital and the most populous and important city in the region since 1296.

Views walking down the many hundreds of steps from upper Ragusa to Lower Ragusa.

After the earthquake of 1693 when everything was destroyed in many areas of Sicily a new form of decoration was born. Baroque Stone Carvings of heads under balconies supported by corbels of plaster and stone.

Balconies became the emblem of the baroque decoration of many of these buildings. In particular, facade balconies, supported by corbels made out of successive courses of stonework, or by large wooden or stone brackets, were ornate with facial masks.

This is the same building with the heads. These architectural decorations are used to “mask” and “disguise” the technical elements, and then to transform an object with structural function in an ornate form.

The Church of the Souls of Purgatory, one of the Baroque edifices built after the 1693 earthquake.

Decoration on the fence

Looking up the hill from Lower Ragusa Ibla in front of the Church of the Souls of Purgatory.

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