Modica

The ancient origins of Modica date back to the fifth century B.C. when the Motyka Sicula became part of the territory dominated by the Syracusan tyrant Gelone.

Romans conquered it definitively in 212 B.C. and the Arabs, who arrived in the ninth century, gave it the name of Mohac, developing trade and agriculture.

The successive Norman invaders gave the city the title of County. It remained until 1927, with the creation of the province of Ragusa.
Also Modica, like all the cities of the Val di Noto, was totally destroyed by the earthquake of 1693. It was rebuilt again with beautiful baroque buildings and churches.

Modica, like Ragusa, is also divided into “high” and “low” because of the conformation modeled by the orography of the Hyblaean plateau.
Absolute masterpiece is the Church of S. Giorgio, located on top of a spectacular staircase.

Modica is also the city of chocolate. Famous all over the world, it owes its uniqueness to a grainy texture and a rough, almost raw, that preserves intact all the characteristics of cocoa.

A few kilometers from Modica, there are the Cave of Ispica. These enclose in an archaeological area testimonies ranging from the early Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages.