The name of the city comes from the ancient Hybla Heraia, a Sicel town hellenized in the 6th c. BC that has been identified as the modem Hibla, Ragusa Inferiore, the oldest part, which with the older part, Ragusa Superiore, separated by valleys, forms the modem city. Heraia gave rise to the names Hereum, Heresium, Re’sa, Raccusa or Rag’s and, in the end, Ragusa.

The various necropolises in the area indicate that the zone was already inhabited in the third millennium BC, and more intensively (oven-type tombs in the valleys) in the 9th and 8th c. BC. The arrival of the Greeks led to further development, thanks also to the nearby port of Camerina, q.v. The city was then occupied by the Carthaginians and later, without resistance, by the Romans who accordingly declared it a decuman city.

From the 4th c. and five further centuries, it was dorninated by the Byzantines. In 868, after a series of raids, it was finally conquered by the Muslims, and later, when it passed to the Normans, it was assigned in 1091 by Count Roger to his son Geoffrey, who populated the city with Calabrians from Cosenza (which rerninds us of the multiple origins, near and far, of modern-day Sici1ians). With the Chiaromonte family in the 14th c., and until the 16th c., the city layout was redesigned, with the addition, here as elsewhere, of buildings belonging to the religious orders.

With the Swabians, the Angevins, the Aragonese (who made it a County which was granted to Giovanni Prefolio, the local leader of the anti-French revolt of the Sicilian Vespers ) and later with the Cabreras and the granting of territories in perpetual lease in 1452, the city achieved a degree of development and prosperity that continued to increase with the passing years.

When Ragusa was devastated by an earthquake in 1693, the new agricultural ruling class immediately decided to build a new city, beyond the valley, on the other hill, known as Patro, while it was only in 1730 that the old feudal nobility initiated the reconstruction of the destroyed Hibla, which had however maintained its administrative autonomy. The year 1838 saw the discovery of deposit of asphalt deposits, still exploited today. In 1865 the twin towns became autonomous Communes, but were again reunited in 1926 and jointly created Provincial Capital in 1927.

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