Comiso Airport

Comiso Airport (IATA: CIY, ICAO: LICB), also known as Vincenzo Magliocco Airport, is located in the Sicilian town of Comiso in the Ragusa province. The airport serves Comiso (5 km/3 miles from it), Ragusa (15 km/9.3 miles from it), Vittoria and Gela. It changed from military to civil use during 2005-2008. The airport was opened to commercial and general aviation 30 May 2013.

History

1935-1980

The installation began as an aerodrome that was constructed in southeastern Sicily, at the foot of the Hyblaean Mountains ("Monti iblei") and near the city of Comiso. The airport was designed in 1934 under the fascist regime but building works did not start until 1935 and were finished in 1939. Magliocco Aerodromo was dedicated in 1936 and named in honor of Major General Vincenzo Magliocco, the first Sicilian to become a general officer in the Italian Air Force. Magliocco had been killed in the Ethiopian war in 1936.

It became one of several key aerodromes in southern Sicily during the Second World War. German forces were stationed there in 1941, as part of Italy's Axis Alliance, and the German Luftwaffe in 1943 conducted air operations against Allied positions in Maghreb and Malta after its withdrawal from Tunisia.

Comiso

Comiso, Sicilian: Còmmisu, is an Italian comune in the Province of Ragusa in Sicily.

Geography

Comiso has two frazioni, Pedalino and Quaglio. It lies some 22 kilometres (14 mi) west of Ragusa in the South of Sicily. The main productive sectors are agriculture (wine and vegetables) and trades, including smithery, cabinet making and marble work.

Neighboring communities are: Chiaramonte Gulfi, Ragusa and Vittoria.

The Comisana breed of sheep takes its name from Comiso.

History

Comiso has in the past been incorrectly identified with the ancient Greek colony of Casmene.

Under the Byzantines a new borough began to grow on Comiso's present site around the monasteries of St. Nicolò and Saint Blaise, expanding further under the later Norman and Aragonese domination of Sicily. It was later a fief of the Chiaromonte, Cabrera and Naselli families: the latter, counts of the city from 1571, boosted the economy of the city and built new district outside the ancient walls.

Comiso was devastated by the 1693 earthquake and rebuilt on the same spot as the old ruins in the Sicilian Baroque style.