Palazzo Polara is a historic building in Modica, to the left of the cathedral of San Giorgio, a World Heritage Site. It was built by the noble family of the Polara marquises and barons, probably from the seventeenth century, on a site used since classical times.
What to see
Its present appearance is late Baroque and is due to the patronage of Guglielmo Polara Ferraro, born in 1758; a sixteenth-century phase is also assumed for the palace. A theatrical staircase rises to a terrace onto which the entrance opens, in full continuity with the monumental steps of the cathedral, of which the façade becomes almost an extra wing of the stage. The layout, unusual for the town, shows instead analogies with Palazzo Battaglia in Ragusa, for which the hand of Rosario Gagliardi has been suggested: the large rusticated corners like the portal, and the shape of the balconies and of the portal. Original is the attic crowning the façade, where the family's canting arms stand out, the pole star surrounded by six stars.
Inside are nineteenth-century frescoes and elegant floors inlaid with pitch stone and white stone, as in the family's country villa in contrada Aguglie and in other houses of the district linked to the Polara. During restoration in 2013 hypogea were discovered with a skeleton and grave goods datable between the first century BC and the first century AD. From the façade the view takes in the lower part of the historic centre and the hills, as far as the belvedere of Modica Alta, the Pizzo.
Visiting
The palace belongs to the Comune: it was given to the town in 1983 by the last heir of this branch of the family, Amalia Polara, who died the same year. The Civic Gallery of modern and contemporary art was set up there, which according to the sources has long been closed awaiting reopening: access to the interior must be checked.
Our editors' tip
The palace often appears in television and film productions, among them the series «Il commissario Montalbano», shot mainly between Modica, Scicli and Ragusa.
