Museum of the Cathedral of Ragusa

The cathedral museum is a reality, an institution that had been missing for a long time: its location is extremely optimal as it is located in the historic city center (on Corso Italia a few steps from the first church of the Diocese, inside one of the most elegant and sumptuous palaces of the city, built in 1923 in eighteenth-century architectural style). Established by the episcopal decree of Monsignor Angelo Rizzo on November 7, 1998, it guards and displays sacred furnishings and worship objects of precious craftsmanship: seven exhibition rooms that preserve reliquaries of saints venerated in the Ragusa area, a large number of goldsmith works, episcopal jewels, vestments and liturgical texts, and wooden statues the fruit of popular devotion. The rooms are arranged chronologically: the first is dedicated to the period preceding the earthquake of January 11, 1693; it displays the ivory and inlaid wood reliquary chest of Saint George, a Venetian work from the 14th century, a sacred scripture of St. Augustine dated Lyon 1493, and a marvelous corporal bag from 1500. Moving to the second room, visitors admire the worship objects of Saint John the Baptist including the holy ark dated 1731. The third and fourth rooms are dedicated to the custody of altar furnishings; exceptionally beautiful are the 14 paintings of the Way of the Cross from 1775 by Stefano Ragazzi recently restored, which illustrate the poignant story of the Passion of Christ. In the fifth room, the neoclassical period is represented with sacred vestments made of precious silk embroidered in gold and silver dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The sixth room is entirely dedicated to the cult of the Madonna: one can admire statue crowns, paintings, and a precious late nineteenth-century processional banner belonging to the Confraternity of the Most Holy Heart of the Madonna of the Medal. In the last, the seventh room, are sacred objects from the 1950s made following the erection of the Diocese of Ragusa on May 6, 1950, including rings, episcopal crosses, and the precious 19th-century silk mitre embroidered in gold. In short, a structure that well deserves to be enjoyed by the people, by the inhabitants of Ragusa and by those who visit our city; it represents a pride for the local community and especially for the cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, which in 2002 was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, thus becoming a world heritage. The museum was visited by Bishop Monsignor Paolo Urso accompanied by the Cathedral parish priest Father Carmelo Tidona and was impressed by the new structure: “Now it would be nice to be able to host on the upper floor of the palace a restoration school,” hoped the Pastor of the diocese.