Portal of San Giorgio

The Portal of San Giorgio is a medieval Gothic doorway in Ragusa Ibla, on Via dei Normanni near Giardino Ibleo. It is the surviving entrance of the former Church of San Giorgio, destroyed in the 1693 earthquake. Look closely at the limestone carving above the arch: it depicts Saint George facing a dragon, with a kneeling woman watching. The portal makes a quiet stop on a walk through Ragusa Ibla and gives you a close look at the town’s medieval past.

A doorway left by the earthquake

The portal is the remaining entrance of the former Church of San Giorgio in Ragusa Ibla. The church was damaged in an earthquake in 1542 and destroyed in the major earthquake of 1693. Its doorway survived, leaving a fragment of the medieval church in the town’s streets.

The church had three entrances. Ragusans have traditionally connected the portal’s survival to their devotion to San Giorgio, the town’s patron saint.

The carving above the arch

Look at the limestone lunette above the archway. Its relief shows Saint George confronting a dragon, with a woman kneeling nearby. In the legend represented here, the woman is a king’s daughter, chosen as the day’s sacrifice to the dragon.

The story tells of a town threatened by the creature and of Saint George, who first wounded it and later killed it after the townspeople agreed to convert to Christianity. The dragon is understood as a symbol of evil or a non-Christian force.