Piazza Matteotti - Modica, Sicily - Historic Facades beneath the Rocky Hillside

Historic buildings, palms and café terraces frame Piazza Matteotti in Modica Bassa, with the rugged limestone hillside rising dramatically behind the old town.

Historic stone façades and palm trees surround Piazza Giacomo Matteotti in Modica Bassa, while the steep limestone hillside rises dramatically behind the buildings. Warm evening light across the rock and old architecture emphasizes the unusual relationship between the Sicilian town and the rugged landscape into which it was built. Piazza Matteotti lies close to Corso Umberto I, the principal street through the lower part of historic Modica, and forms part of an area containing buildings from several periods of the city's long history. Among the important monuments bordering the square is the Chiesa del Carmine and its former Carmelite convent, a complex whose origins reach back to the medieval period. The church is particularly notable because significant parts survived the devastating earthquake of 1693 that transformed much of southeastern Sicily. The surrounding streets were subsequently shaped by reconstruction and later urban development, creating the mixture of historic architecture seen today. Modica's dramatic setting among steep rocky slopes, stairways and densely layered buildings gives the UNESCO-listed late-Baroque city one of the most distinctive urban landscapes in southeastern Sicily.