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"Modica.
Noble, opulent and populated town, chief of the ancient and vaste
County". This 18th century description belongs to Vito
Amore, historian and clerical, and summarizes the political, economical
and cultural importance of this town, whose origins go back to farthest
ages and events.
Historiography,
as rich as doubtful, provides data about a town called "Motyca"
populated by primitive populations, the Siculi, around the 7th century
b.C., at the time of the Greek Colonies in Sicily; data regarding
coins of Greek mintage endowed of the inscription "Motayon",
here recovered, were told by historian Mario Carrafa in the 18th
century.
The
traces of a Roman installation in Modica seem clearer (it might
be mentioned by Ciceron's "Verrine") when it might have
been a Decuman Town, paying one out of ten parts of its harvest
to the Empire. Even clearer traces are those left by Arabians who
conquered a "Castle" in "Mudiqah" in 845.
 Other
common appellations of Modica were Motica, Motuca, Mohac, etc. Undoubted
occupation was that of Normans, in the 15th century, who, led by
Ruggero d'Altavilla (Ruggero Hauteville), "threw" the
Saracens out of Sicily. Ruggero, lately known as "the Norman",
devoted to St. George, introduced the cult of the Saint,
eventually become patron of Modica.
During
Ruggero's reign Modica was originally, entitled County, and Gualtieri,
one of Ruggero's lieutenants was the first Count.
But
it was especially under Spanish Aragona's rule (xiii-xvii century)
that Modica, as a County (extended on a territory corresponding
to the present province extension) achieved its main importance
and splendour, when the Mosca and above all the Chiaramonte and
Cabrera dynasties, exponents of the feudal local power, were in
no way (authority, richness and magnificence) inferior to the king
himself who only indirectly controlled the County.
"A
kingdom within the Kingdom". That is how the development of
such territorial organizations was used to call. These organizations
were just formally entitled by the king (or by any other form of
central power) but represented to him, especially during Feudalism,
an essential economic and political support (or a potential obstacle
and enemy).
In
this respect the essential words pronounced by King Ruggero in its
authority in 1392, are quoted as follows, from Latin: "I in
my Kingdom like You in your County".
With
the successors Henriquez, the County partly lost its importance,
and even worse with the following Alvarez (18th century) and Fits-Stuart
(18th and early 19th centuries) when the title of Count had a merely
formal meaning and had lost any of its old privileges.
On
the whole, seven actual centuries of history, almost entirely under
the Spanish hand, that so much has left in all Sicilian dialects
and idioms, foods and drinks, monuments and streets, and finally,
in the Baroque which right in Spain find its roots.
A
big sign, of course, they had on Sicilian people and personality,
which, along with the signs partly left by all of the other invaders
and the essential "Sicilian native layer", have mould
the identity and personality of the Sicilian.
 •
Modica
is the town of the "over one-hundred churches", that the
historian F.L. Belgiorno numbered, including ruins and various remnants.
•
It is the town of Salvatore Quasimodo, 20th century writer and 1959's
Nobel, and of Tommaso Campailla, 18th century scientist and philosopher.
•
Modica:
town of the famous bridge, among the highest in Europe (300 m in
height) , overlooking the whole City, joining "new" and
"old" Modica.
•
Town
of the Castle, whose remains are a 18th century tower and, set on
it, a more recent clock, both, symbolically representing Modica.
•
Then
the "town including two towns": Modica Alta (upper) and
Modica Bassa (lower).
 •
The town of the delicious pastries and foods, of the coloured and
amazing country and sea sides.
•
Town
of the Baroque and of the County, both witnessing the times when
it was among the richest and most beautiful towns in Sicily.
•
Finally,
town of disasters: naturals, like the 1613 and 1693 earthquakes
and the 1833 and 1902 floods; Humans, as "respectfully"
(to the real catastrophes) meant some architectural opprobrium in
the midst of contexts of absolutely different history and beauty.
These
are all representations, maybe limited and reductive as well as
fragmentary of an historic town that today is, of course, transformed,
along with the modern society, and whose representative features
and activities have obviously shifted.
 In
spite of this and of thousands of mostly economic problems that
Modica runs through, a sort of revaluation and appreciation of its
important past seems starting, at least partly, through a series
of investments and promoting activities and tourist initiatives
principally referred to the periods of the County.
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