Ragusa

Ragusa is a place-name. There are two places called Ragusa, one archaic and the other current. Historians are as likely to come across the archaic place:

• Ragusa (or Communitas Ragusina ('Ragusan community') or Respublica Ragusina ('Republic of Ragusa' in Latin)) was a settlement in Dalmatia, an entity on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, within modern Croatia. Ragusa is now called Dubrovnik. It appears to have been founded in the seventh century by survivors of the destruction of Dalmatian Epidaurum around 615. At various times it fell under Byzantine, Venetian and Norman control. From 1358, it was subject to the Hungarian kingdom. In 1458 it made a treaty with the Ottoman Enpire, retaining its independence because of the convenience of its trade. After an occupation by the French, under Napoleon between 1806 and 1813, Ragusa was ceded to the Austrian Empire, with whom it remained till 1918, when it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
• Currently, the name Ragusa is only applied to a city with associated province, commune etc in south-eastern Sicily. The current city is divided (it was formerly two separate municipalities) into Ragusa Ibla and Ragusa Superiore ('Upper Ragusa'). Ragusa Ibla was largely rebuilt after a terrible earhquake in 1693 - which is when Ragusa Superiore began to rise.

• • The settlement was called Hybla Heraea in ancient times. Under Byzantine rule, it was called Ibla Heurusium; under the Arabs, it was called Rakkusa or Ragus (recorded in 868). "This is considered to be linked to the Byzantine roghoz, equivalent to the modern Italian granaio ‘granary’" (Everett-Heath 2020). Wiktionary says that Ragusa is "said to be derived from Lausa, a rock in the historical province. The name most likely means 'slab' and is cognate with Italian losanga ('slab')."