The Capuchin convent of Modica, with the adjoining church of the Madonna delle Grazie, is a religious complex in the western part of the town. The Capuchins came to Modica in 1556: on 30 August of that year the town's General Council pledged by official act to host them and provide for their keep.
What to see
The architecture is sober and follows the classic canons of Capuchin convents. The building is arranged around a large quadrangular cloister, paved with slabs of local stone, with a well at the centre. The church, dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie, has a very unusual balustrade in black Ragusa stone, 79 centimetres high, which runs from the presbytery along the sides and separates the nave from the six side altars. The high altarpiece, attributed to Michelangelo Cerruti, of the eighteenth century, shows the Immaculate Conception with Saint Francis and Saint Clare. Of great value is the tabernacle in the form of a Renaissance temple, an expression of eighteenth-century Capuchin woodwork.
The friars first settled near the church of San Sebastiano, in a place that took the name San Francesco alla Cava. In 1570 work began on the new convent, near the existing church of the Madonna delle Grazie, and in 1573 the friars moved there. During the plague of 1576, which also struck Modica with many victims, the Capuchins devoted themselves to the sick in the lazarettos. The Val di Noto earthquake of 1693 damaged the building without destroying it; in the first half of the eighteenth century Father Arcangelo da Modica restored and enlarged it, while the small church was demolished and rebuilt larger. With the suppression of religious orders in 1866 the convent passed to the State; bought back in 1892, it was the seat of the Provincial Curia until 1932 and several times a place of training for novices and students.
Visiting
The complex is in Modica and, according to the sources, has come down in excellent condition. Church hours and the chance to see the cloister must be checked with the friars.
Our editors' tip
Behind the high altarpiece, in a large chapel, stands the statue of the Madonna and Child, surrounded by a group of finely made wooden statues known as the «Paradiso».
