The Patron
Santa Lucia
Santa Lucia is Siracusa's patron, celebrated on 13 December. There is also a separate May observance, Santa Lucia delle Quaglie, making the local devotional calendar more specific than devotion to Lucia alone.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Siracusa,
Sicilia
A Greek city whose nineteenth-century province was called Noto.
Siracusa was once the greatest city in the Greek world — larger than Athens at its height, and the place Archimedes lived and died. Its old town, Ortigia , sits on an island joined to the mainland by bridges.
For a researcher the essential fact is administrative and easy to miss: for most of the nineteenth century this was not the provincial capital. The province was seated at Noto , and it carried Noto's name.
The Province
Noto
From 1837 to 1865, the province was seated at Noto and carried that name. A nineteenth-century record naming Provincia di Noto may therefore concern what is now Siracusa province.
The Landmark
Duomo di Siracusa
The Duomo di Siracusa stands in Ortigia, the historic heart of the city. For descendants, knowing whether a family belonged to an Ortigia parish, the mainland city or another provincial comune can sharply narrow the search.
Did you know?
THE PROVINCE WAS ONCE NOTO
Match the record to the decade
The province was Siracusa from 1817–1837, Noto from 1837–1865, and Siracusa again after 1865. In 1927 it also lost twelve comuni to Ragusa, so provincial names and archive trails depend directly on the year.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard. Sicilian is widely represented in local speech and culture.
The province changed its name
Founded by Corinthians in 734 BC , Syracuse became the dominant power of the Greek west — it defeated the Athenian expedition of 415–413 BC, an event Thucydides treated as a turning point of the Peloponnesian War. Archimedes was born here and was killed here when the Romans finally took the city in 212 BC.
Under Rome, Byzantium and the Arabs the city remained important; the Normans and Aragonese fortified it. Ortigia, the island core, is the oldest continuously inhabited part.
On 11 January 1693 the great earthquake of the Val di Noto destroyed the towns of the whole south-east. What followed is one of the most remarkable episodes in European urban history: Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Scicli, Palazzolo Acreide, Militello and others were rebuilt from nothing in a unified late baroque style, and are now collectively UNESCO-listed. Noto was rebuilt on an entirely new site.
When the Bourbons reorganised Sicily in 1817 , the seat of the south-eastern province went to Noto , not Siracusa — the city having been reduced in standing. It was restored to Siracusa only by the law of 20 March 1865 .
In 1927 twelve comuni, most of them of the old Contea di Modica , were detached to form the province of Ragusa.
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Where this
belongs
belongs
PROVINCIA DI SIRACUSA
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Siracusa and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE SIRACUSA →REGIONE SICILIA
From the mountains to the sea, Sicilia is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE SICILIA →From the passenger index
At least 2,094 people who gave Siracusa as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →Ready to visit
An island old town, and the baroque behind it
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Palermo, Catania, Trapani, or Comiso Airport, depending on the destination.
Siracusa is two places. Ortigia , the island, is one of the most beautiful old towns in Italy — compact, walkable, built over its Greek foundations. The mainland city is modern and workaday, and holds the archaeological park.
For a descendant it is an easy base for the whole south-east. Noto is forty minutes away and is where the province was seated before 1865 — worth seeing for that reason as well as for its baroque. Modica, Ragusa and Scicli are an hour or so further, in what is now Ragusa province but was Siracusan when your family left.
The Hyblaean interior between them is dry-stone country, thinly populated, and largely unvisited.
What to see
Ortigia — the island old town, the Duomo built inside a Greek temple, and the Fonte Aretusa.
The Parco Archeologico della Neapolis — the Greek theatre, the Ear of Dionysius, the Roman amphitheatre.
Santa Lucia al Sepolcro — and Caravaggio's Burial of Saint Lucy in the city.
Noto — the baroque town rebuilt after 1693, and the provincial seat before 1865.
The Ciane — the papyrus river outside the city.
Your family's parish — the record-keeping institution before 1820.
The Val di Noto towns — Modica, Ragusa, Scicli and Palazzolo, now Ragusan, Siracusan then.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
Between 1837 and 1865 this province was seated at Noto, not Siracusa.
Related places
Keep exploring
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Siracusa is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →