caricamento
caricamentoSCOPRIRE · Read
Mazzarelli:TheStoryoftheFishermen'sQuarter
Dettagli
To understand Marina di Ragusa, you must start from Mazzarelli. Not from the resorts, not from the Lungomare, not from the nightclubs — but from that handful of low houses facing the old port where it all began. Mazzarelli is not a monument, not a museum: it is the living memory of a place, the point where history stops being a story and becomes stone, salt and the smell of nets. ## Ancient origins: before Mazzarelli The Hyblaean coast has been inhabited for millennia. A few kilometres west of Marina di Ragusa stood **Kamarina** (Καμάρινα), one of the most important Greek colonies in southern Sicily, founded in **598 BC** by Syracusan colonists. For nearly three centuries, Kamarina was a thriving centre: a commercial port, a producer of grain and ceramics, a protagonist in the wars between the Siceliote poleis. Kamarina was destroyed and rebuilt several times — by the Carthaginians, by the Romans — until in **258 BC** the Romans razed it to the ground definitively during the First Punic War. Its remains lie today near the mouth of the River Ippari, in the territory of Santa Croce Camerina, and can be visited at the **Regional Archaeological Museum of Kamarina**. But Kamarina's lesson matters: this coast has never been a margin. Since antiquity, it has been a crossroads of trade, cultures and peoples. The Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans: all left traces on these shores. And when Kamarina fell, life along the coast did not die — it transformed. ## The birth of the village: the first fishermen The origins of the settlement we now know as Marina di Ragusa are shrouded in that documentary twilight typical of small Sicilian coastal settlements. There are no foundation deeds, no dates carved in stone. Instead, there is a story reconstructed from fragments: a watchtower, a few fishermen's cottages, a church dedicated to the Madonna. The name **Mazzarelli** — or *Mazzarelli*, as it appears on some historical maps — has a debated etymology. The most widely accepted thesis derives it from **"mazzara"**, a term of Arab origin (*marsa* or *marsà*) meaning a landing place, a small natural harbour. This is no coincidence: the same root is found in Mazara del Vallo, Mazzarino and dozens of Sicilian coastal place names. Mazzarelli would thus be the **"little harbour"**, the place where boats found shelter from the currents of the Strait of Sicily. Another hypothesis, perhaps less probable but evocative, connects the name to **"mazza"** (club/mallet), the tool fishermen used to stun fish. In both cases, the etymology tells a truth: Mazzarelli was born from the sea and for the sea. The first permanent settlements probably date to the **15th-16th century**, when small groups of fishermen began to settle near the natural inlet that today houses the tourist marina. The dwellings were basic: walls of local limestone, vaulted roofs (*dammuso*), a single room where people lived, slept and stored their fishing gear. ## The 1693 earthquake and rebirth On **11 January 1693**, a catastrophic earthquake — one of the most devastating in European history — struck all of eastern Sicily. With an estimated magnitude of 7.4, the quake levelled over 70 cities and villages, killing approximately 60,000 people. The Ragusa coast was hit hard. Ragusa Superiore was almost completely destroyed, and the population split: one part rebuilt on the original hill (Ragusa Superiore), another founded a new settlement in the valley below, giving birth to what would become **Ragusa Ibla** — the Baroque masterpiece we know today. Mazzarelli, being a low-lying coastal settlement, suffered damage but not the total destruction of the hilltop cities. Reconstruction was slow and silent, far from the great Baroque building sites of the hinterland. While in Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli and Noto monumental churches and noble palaces were rising, in Mazzarelli the fishermen rebuilt their houses with the same limestone, with the same humility, with the same orientation toward the sea. This contrast makes the relationship between Marina and its hinterland unique: the triumphant Baroque of the hilltop cities and the functional minimalism of the fishermen's village on the coast. Two Sicilies within thirty kilometres. ## The fishermen's life: rituals and knowledge Until the mid-twentieth century, Mazzarelli lived according to rhythms marked by the sea and the seasons. Fishing was the only economy, and every family had its own role in the village ecosystem. ### Fishing techniques Mazzarelli's fishermen practised several techniques, each tied to specific species and seasons: - **La lampara**: night fishing with oil lamps (later electric) that attracted blue fish — sardines, anchovies, mackerel — toward the nets. Boats left at sunset and returned at dawn, and the harbour in the morning was a theatre of voices, baskets and bargaining. - **Il cianciolo** (*cianciòlu*): a large seine net cast around shoals of fish spotted from the boat. It required perfect coordination among several men and an intimate knowledge of the currents. - **Longlines** (*palangari*): long lines with hundreds of hooks, laid on the seabed to catch grouper, dentex and pandora fish. The longlines were prepared on shore by women and children, hours of patient work. - **Wicker traps** (*nasse*): traps made of willow or rush for octopus, cuttlefish and lobster, set at precise spots that each fisherman guarded jealously. ### The fish market The economic heart of Mazzarelli was the dawn fish market. Fishermen, returning from the night's work, unloaded their catch directly on the quayside. Housewives from the surrounding area — not just from Marina, but from the inland towns too — came down to buy fresh fish. Prices were bargained by voice, without scales: fish was sold "by eye", and trust was the most important currency. This tradition survives today, in reduced form, at the **fish market** in the harbour: those who arrive early in the morning can still buy fish directly from fishermen, just as they did a hundred years ago. ### The women of Mazzarelli In the village's history, women played a fundamental and often underestimated role. While men were at sea, women managed everything else: preparing nets and longlines, selling fish, salting and preserving the catch, raising children and keeping house. The **"salatrice"** — the women who salted anchovies and sardines — were central figures in the village economy. Salted fish was sold in inland markets and constituted an essential source of income during winter months, when the sea was too rough to go out. ## The transformation: from village to resort Mazzarelli's metamorphosis from fishing village to seaside resort is a story that unfolds over a century, with a dramatic acceleration after the war. ### The pioneers of seaside holidays (1920-1940) The first to discover Marina's potential were the noble and bourgeois families of Ragusa. In the 1920s and 1930s, several families of Ragusa's aristocracy — including the **Ferruzza-Ferreri** counts — began building summer villas along the coast, at a respectful distance from the fishermen's quarter. This marked the beginning of a coexistence that would define Marina's identity: on one side the ancient village with its rhythms, on the other the "gentlefolk's" cottages with their holiday rituals. **Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi**, Marina's current central square, was conceived during this period as a meeting point between the two worlds. Its design — open toward the sea, with the church at its centre — reflects the desire to create a civic space that belonged not just to fishermen, but to the whole community. ### Summer camps and the post-war era (1945-1970) After the war, Marina di Ragusa entered a new phase. **Summer camps** (*colonie estive*) — facilities run by public and religious organisations for children from less affluent families — brought the first organised flow of visitors. For many Ragusans of the post-war generation, Marina was the place of discovery of the sea: the first swim, the first ice cream on the promenade, the first summer evening out. At the same time, the construction of the **coastal road** and improved connections to Ragusa made Marina more accessible. The first guest houses and beach establishments appeared along the coast, gradually transforming the local economy from fishing to tourism. ### The boom (1970-2000) The 1970s marked the turning point. Mass car ownership, improved road infrastructure and economic growth in southern Italy brought an unprecedented influx to Marina. Agricultural and uncultivated land behind the village was parcelled up and built upon. Apartment blocks, terraced houses, and residential complexes sprang up. The Lungomare Andrea Doria was redesigned and extended. New equipped lidos appeared on the beach. In thirty years, Marina's summer population grew from a few hundred to tens of thousands. It was a tumultuous transformation, not always orderly, but one that also brought prosperity and services. Mazzarelli's fishermen, many of whom had inherited coastal plots of little value, suddenly found themselves owners of building land. Some sold and retired. Others invested, opening restaurants and guest houses. Fishing, once the primary economy, became a residual activity — but it never disappeared. ## Mazzarelli today: what remains, what lives Visitors to Mazzarelli today find a quarter that bears the marks of all its ages. The fishermen's houses — those that survive — are recognisable by their small size, their exposed stone or whitewashed walls, their low doors, their inner courtyards where nets were once hung to dry. ### A walking itinerary Starting from the **tourist marina**, walk up toward the heart of the village through alleys that still preserve their original limestone paving. Here are the highlights: 1. **The old harbour**: where the boats of the remaining fishermen still moor. In the early morning, you can watch boats return and buy fresh fish. 2. **Via Mazzarelli**: the old village's main street, narrow and irregular, flanked by low houses with stone lintels. 3. **The Church of Santa Maria di Portosalvo**: the fishermen's church, built in the 18th century, dedicated to the protectress of seafarers. Its facade is simple, almost austere — like the people who built it. 4. **Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi**: where the old village meets modern Marina. In summer, the square hosts events, concerts and the evening market. 5. **Lungomare Andrea Doria**: the promenade running the length of the beach, the centre of Marina's social life. ### Surviving traditions Mazzarelli is not an open-air museum; it has not been "recovered" or "enhanced" in the touristic sense. It is a living quarter where people still reside and work. But some traditions endure: - **The sea procession**: every summer, the statue of the Madonna is carried in procession to the harbour and hoisted onto a boat for a blessing of the sea. It is the moment when Mazzarelli becomes, for a day, the centre of Marina once more. - **Fishermen's cooking**: in the most authentic restaurants around the harbour, you can still find dishes that come directly from Mazzarelli's tradition. **Pesce alla ghiotta** (fish with tomato, capers and olives), **sarde a beccafico** (stuffed sardines), **fish soup** with stale bread — recipes handed down through fishing families. - **Net mending**: on the harbour quaysides in the morning, it is not unusual to see fishermen mending nets with the same gestures and the same knots as always. It is a hypnotic spectacle, well worth stopping to watch. ## Mazzarelli and the future The quarter stands at a crossroads. On one hand, property and tourist pressure risks erasing the last traces of the original settlement: houses renovated in "modern" style, guest rooms where fishermen's homes once stood, car parks where vegetable gardens used to be. On the other, a growing awareness — among residents and administrators — of Mazzarelli's historical and identity value could lead to measures for its protection and restoration. What is certain is that Mazzarelli cannot be reduced to a tourist attraction. It is the place where Marina di Ragusa has its roots, the point from which everything started. Preserving it does not mean embalming it, but recognising that a place's history is not optional: it is what makes it unique. --- > *In Mazzarelli, time has not stopped — it has layered. Every wall bears the trace of a generation. Every alleyway tells a story of sea, toil and belonging. You just need the patience to listen.*
SCOPRIRE · Read
Mazzarelli:TheStoryoftheFishermen'sQuarter
To understand Marina di Ragusa, you must start from Mazzarelli. Not from the resorts, not from the Lungomare, not from the nightclubs — but from that handful of low houses facing the old port where it all began. Mazzarelli is not a monument, not a museum: it is the living memory of a place, the point where history stops being a story and becomes stone, salt and the smell of nets. ## Ancient origins: before Mazzarelli The Hyblaean coast has been inhabited for millennia. A few kilometres west of Marina di Ragusa stood **Kamarina** (Καμάρινα), one of the most important Greek colonies in southern Sicily, founded in **598 BC** by Syracusan colonists. For nearly three centuries, Kamarina was a thriving centre: a commercial port, a producer of grain and ceramics, a protagonist in the wars between the Siceliote poleis. Kamarina was destroyed and rebuilt several times — by the Carthaginians, by the Romans — until in **258 BC** the Romans razed it to the ground definitively during the First Punic War. Its remains lie today near the mouth of the River Ippari, in the territory of Santa Croce Camerina, and can be visited at the **Regional Archaeological Museum of Kamarina**. But Kamarina's lesson matters: this coast has never been a margin. Since antiquity, it has been a crossroads of trade, cultures and peoples. The Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans: all left traces on these shores. And when Kamarina fell, life along the coast did not die — it transformed. ## The birth of the village: the first fishermen The origins of the settlement we now know as Marina di Ragusa are shrouded in that documentary twilight typical of small Sicilian coastal settlements. There are no foundation deeds, no dates carved in stone. Instead, there is a story reconstructed from fragments: a watchtower, a few fishermen's cottages, a church dedicated to the Madonna. The name **Mazzarelli** — or *Mazzarelli*, as it appears on some historical maps — has a debated etymology. The most widely accepted thesis derives it from **"mazzara"**, a term of Arab origin (*marsa* or *marsà*) meaning a landing place, a small natural harbour. This is no coincidence: the same root is found in Mazara del Vallo, Mazzarino and dozens of Sicilian coastal place names. Mazzarelli would thus be the **"little harbour"**, the place where boats found shelter from the currents of the Strait of Sicily. Another hypothesis, perhaps less probable but evocative, connects the name to **"mazza"** (club/mallet), the tool fishermen used to stun fish. In both cases, the etymology tells a truth: Mazzarelli was born from the sea and for the sea. The first permanent settlements probably date to the **15th-16th century**, when small groups of fishermen began to settle near the natural inlet that today houses the tourist marina. The dwellings were basic: walls of local limestone, vaulted roofs (*dammuso*), a single room where people lived, slept and stored their fishing gear. ## The 1693 earthquake and rebirth On **11 January 1693**, a catastrophic earthquake — one of the most devastating in European history — struck all of eastern Sicily. With an estimated magnitude of 7.4, the quake levelled over 70 cities and villages, killing approximately 60,000 people. The Ragusa coast was hit hard. Ragusa Superiore was almost completely destroyed, and the population split: one part rebuilt on the original hill (Ragusa Superiore), another founded a new settlement in the valley below, giving birth to what would become **Ragusa Ibla** — the Baroque masterpiece we know today. Mazzarelli, being a low-lying coastal settlement, suffered damage but not the total destruction of the hilltop cities. Reconstruction was slow and silent, far from the great Baroque building sites of the hinterland. While in Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli and Noto monumental churches and noble palaces were rising, in Mazzarelli the fishermen rebuilt their houses with the same limestone, with the same humility, with the same orientation toward the sea. This contrast makes the relationship between Marina and its hinterland unique: the triumphant Baroque of the hilltop cities and the functional minimalism of the fishermen's village on the coast. Two Sicilies within thirty kilometres. ## The fishermen's life: rituals and knowledge Until the mid-twentieth century, Mazzarelli lived according to rhythms marked by the sea and the seasons. Fishing was the only economy, and every family had its own role in the village ecosystem. ### Fishing techniques Mazzarelli's fishermen practised several techniques, each tied to specific species and seasons: - **La lampara**: night fishing with oil lamps (later electric) that attracted blue fish — sardines, anchovies, mackerel — toward the nets. Boats left at sunset and returned at dawn, and the harbour in the morning was a theatre of voices, baskets and bargaining. - **Il cianciolo** (*cianciòlu*): a large seine net cast around shoals of fish spotted from the boat. It required perfect coordination among several men and an intimate knowledge of the currents. - **Longlines** (*palangari*): long lines with hundreds of hooks, laid on the seabed to catch grouper, dentex and pandora fish. The longlines were prepared on shore by women and children, hours of patient work. - **Wicker traps** (*nasse*): traps made of willow or rush for octopus, cuttlefish and lobster, set at precise spots that each fisherman guarded jealously. ### The fish market The economic heart of Mazzarelli was the dawn fish market. Fishermen, returning from the night's work, unloaded their catch directly on the quayside. Housewives from the surrounding area — not just from Marina, but from the inland towns too — came down to buy fresh fish. Prices were bargained by voice, without scales: fish was sold "by eye", and trust was the most important currency. This tradition survives today, in reduced form, at the **fish market** in the harbour: those who arrive early in the morning can still buy fish directly from fishermen, just as they did a hundred years ago. ### The women of Mazzarelli In the village's history, women played a fundamental and often underestimated role. While men were at sea, women managed everything else: preparing nets and longlines, selling fish, salting and preserving the catch, raising children and keeping house. The **"salatrice"** — the women who salted anchovies and sardines — were central figures in the village economy. Salted fish was sold in inland markets and constituted an essential source of income during winter months, when the sea was too rough to go out. ## The transformation: from village to resort Mazzarelli's metamorphosis from fishing village to seaside resort is a story that unfolds over a century, with a dramatic acceleration after the war. ### The pioneers of seaside holidays (1920-1940) The first to discover Marina's potential were the noble and bourgeois families of Ragusa. In the 1920s and 1930s, several families of Ragusa's aristocracy — including the **Ferruzza-Ferreri** counts — began building summer villas along the coast, at a respectful distance from the fishermen's quarter. This marked the beginning of a coexistence that would define Marina's identity: on one side the ancient village with its rhythms, on the other the "gentlefolk's" cottages with their holiday rituals. **Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi**, Marina's current central square, was conceived during this period as a meeting point between the two worlds. Its design — open toward the sea, with the church at its centre — reflects the desire to create a civic space that belonged not just to fishermen, but to the whole community. ### Summer camps and the post-war era (1945-1970) After the war, Marina di Ragusa entered a new phase. **Summer camps** (*colonie estive*) — facilities run by public and religious organisations for children from less affluent families — brought the first organised flow of visitors. For many Ragusans of the post-war generation, Marina was the place of discovery of the sea: the first swim, the first ice cream on the promenade, the first summer evening out. At the same time, the construction of the **coastal road** and improved connections to Ragusa made Marina more accessible. The first guest houses and beach establishments appeared along the coast, gradually transforming the local economy from fishing to tourism. ### The boom (1970-2000) The 1970s marked the turning point. Mass car ownership, improved road infrastructure and economic growth in southern Italy brought an unprecedented influx to Marina. Agricultural and uncultivated land behind the village was parcelled up and built upon. Apartment blocks, terraced houses, and residential complexes sprang up. The Lungomare Andrea Doria was redesigned and extended. New equipped lidos appeared on the beach. In thirty years, Marina's summer population grew from a few hundred to tens of thousands. It was a tumultuous transformation, not always orderly, but one that also brought prosperity and services. Mazzarelli's fishermen, many of whom had inherited coastal plots of little value, suddenly found themselves owners of building land. Some sold and retired. Others invested, opening restaurants and guest houses. Fishing, once the primary economy, became a residual activity — but it never disappeared. ## Mazzarelli today: what remains, what lives Visitors to Mazzarelli today find a quarter that bears the marks of all its ages. The fishermen's houses — those that survive — are recognisable by their small size, their exposed stone or whitewashed walls, their low doors, their inner courtyards where nets were once hung to dry. ### A walking itinerary Starting from the **tourist marina**, walk up toward the heart of the village through alleys that still preserve their original limestone paving. Here are the highlights: 1. **The old harbour**: where the boats of the remaining fishermen still moor. In the early morning, you can watch boats return and buy fresh fish. 2. **Via Mazzarelli**: the old village's main street, narrow and irregular, flanked by low houses with stone lintels. 3. **The Church of Santa Maria di Portosalvo**: the fishermen's church, built in the 18th century, dedicated to the protectress of seafarers. Its facade is simple, almost austere — like the people who built it. 4. **Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi**: where the old village meets modern Marina. In summer, the square hosts events, concerts and the evening market. 5. **Lungomare Andrea Doria**: the promenade running the length of the beach, the centre of Marina's social life. ### Surviving traditions Mazzarelli is not an open-air museum; it has not been "recovered" or "enhanced" in the touristic sense. It is a living quarter where people still reside and work. But some traditions endure: - **The sea procession**: every summer, the statue of the Madonna is carried in procession to the harbour and hoisted onto a boat for a blessing of the sea. It is the moment when Mazzarelli becomes, for a day, the centre of Marina once more. - **Fishermen's cooking**: in the most authentic restaurants around the harbour, you can still find dishes that come directly from Mazzarelli's tradition. **Pesce alla ghiotta** (fish with tomato, capers and olives), **sarde a beccafico** (stuffed sardines), **fish soup** with stale bread — recipes handed down through fishing families. - **Net mending**: on the harbour quaysides in the morning, it is not unusual to see fishermen mending nets with the same gestures and the same knots as always. It is a hypnotic spectacle, well worth stopping to watch. ## Mazzarelli and the future The quarter stands at a crossroads. On one hand, property and tourist pressure risks erasing the last traces of the original settlement: houses renovated in "modern" style, guest rooms where fishermen's homes once stood, car parks where vegetable gardens used to be. On the other, a growing awareness — among residents and administrators — of Mazzarelli's historical and identity value could lead to measures for its protection and restoration. What is certain is that Mazzarelli cannot be reduced to a tourist attraction. It is the place where Marina di Ragusa has its roots, the point from which everything started. Preserving it does not mean embalming it, but recognising that a place's history is not optional: it is what makes it unique. --- > *In Mazzarelli, time has not stopped — it has layered. Every wall bears the trace of a generation. Every alleyway tells a story of sea, toil and belonging. You just need the patience to listen.*