For centuries, whoever ruled the County of Modica — one of the most powerful feudal lordships in southern Italy — did so from here. The Castle of the Counts stands on a rocky spur with two sheer sides, and was at once fortress, residence and prison: already listed among the royal castles in 1272 and named in a papal bull of 1255, it hosted King Frederick IV of Aragon in 1366 and Martin I of Sicily in 1401. From 1361 justice was administered here too, and the offices stayed until 1865.
What to see
Little remains of the old manor — once five towers, four gates and walls — after the 1693 earthquake and later demolitions: outside, a fourteenth-century polygonal tower still rises. The heart of the visit is the medieval prisons cut into the rock of the courtyard, a set of squared rooms each reserved for a category of prisoner; for the most dangerous brigands there were two pits some seven metres deep, closed above by an iron grate that let in light and air, and one is still visible. Onto the courtyard face the little church of the Madonna del Medagliere, of 1930, and what is left of the counts' private chapel, San Cataldo. Recently reopened, too, is a striking tunnel carved through the rock, the old patrol passage that crosses the spur.
Visiting
Recent excavations, carried out as the newer part of the castle is being adapted for reuse, are bringing to light ceramics, bronze coins, funerary furnishings and foundations spanning from the Bronze Age to the nineteenth century: layer upon layer of Modica's history. From the rock, the castle commands the town that grew up at its feet.
Our editors' tip
Seek out the two prisoners' pits and the patrol tunnel: they are where the castle stops being a view and becomes the machine of power and fear it was for centuries. One detail not to miss: the walled-up bell niches on the outside, which once marked out for the town the hours and the events lived within the walls.