Modica Tourist Attractions

In the lower town at Via Leva 14 stands the Palazzo de Leva with a doorway which brings together a zigzag ornament of Norman origin with plant motifs (about 1400). In the Palazzo Mercredi there is a folk museum.

The Chiesa del Carmine in Modica dates from the 15th century Its facade displays a portal and rose window in the Gothic style (15th century); in the interior there is a marble Annunciation group by Antonello Gagini (1528-30).

The interesting feature of the Chiesa Santa Maria di Betlem is the Cappella del Sacramento (also called the Cappella Cabrera), with its late Gothic and Renaissance forms (about 1500); it is an interesting design: a rectangular room with four corner niches underneath an octagonal dome with a lantern.

The Chiesa di San Pietro (about 1720), with its flight of steps which exploits its sloping situation, is a sumptious Baroque building. The opulent double-storeyed façade displays jutting gables and rusticised pilasters. The interior is a vaulted columned basilica with three aisles.

The railway station, situated at the southern end of the lower town, boasts a marble plaque bearing verses by the Nobel prizewinner for literature of 1959, Salvatore Quasimodo, and is a reminder that this poet was born here on August 28th 1901, the son of the stationmaster.

In the Via della Mercè in Modica, at the southern end, a former convent houses the library and the municipal museum, which has archeological finds, an ethnological collection and 18th and 19th century paintings.

The upper town of Modica is dominated by the Church of San Giorgio, which received its present form in 1720-38. It is approached by a flight of 250 steps. The façade with its five doorways is crowned by a high central tower, which emphasizes yet again the elevation of the building. The church is obviously related to the one in nearby Ragusa with the same name and both can be ascribed to Rosario Gagliardi.Gagliardi was able to use material from an earlier building on the site, in so far as it had survived the earthquake of 1693. This is demonstrated in the interior, a vaulted columned basilica with three aisles, especially the chancel with its altar retable (8x6m/26x20ft in size), which is made up of many sections and which was created for the earlier building by the painter Bernardino Niger in 1573, using high Renaissance forms. The pictures are arranged in three sections. The lower one shows the Holy Family between the Saints George and Martin, the middle one the Adoration of the Three Kings between the Offering in the temple and the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple; finally the upper section depicts the Resurrection between the motifs of Pentecost and the Ascension.

Also built for a religious order was the Carmelite church and the former priory, now a court building. The front of the church displays features similar to those of the Chiesa Madre, and its slender form with only one door is in line with that of a single-aisled church.

Marina di Modica (22km/14mi southeast of Modica) is a resort with a good sandy beach. The fishing village of Sampieri is 4km/2mi to the west.