Marina di Ragusa

Marina di Ragusa, also known as Mazzarelli, is a southern Italian village and hamlet of Ragusa, a municipality seat of the homonym province, Sicily. In 2011 it had a population of 3,468, that during the summer gets to over 60,000.HistoryThe remains of a Greek settlement of the 5th century BC, when this area was under the control of Kamarina, have been found on the banks of the nearby river Irminio that was used as canal-port. The village was known since the Byzantine era (5th century) when a loading pier was built to export the local products. The Arab geographer El Idrisi writes that during the Arab domination (827-1091) it was called Marsa A'Rillah (small port) and during the years 1584 and 1596 a watchtower known as Torre Cabrera was built by order of the Count B. Cabrera next to the port of the village due to Saracen-ships sailing this stretch of sea. It remained a sleepy fishing village until the 1870s when its port was extensively used for the export of the local asphalt, mined in Ragusa, to numerous European capitals. It was called Mazzarelli until 1928 when the local council changed the name in Marina di Ragusa. During the 1960s, it became a tourist resort, a role which it still maintains today.