This church's story begins with a wonder. On 4 May 1615, in the lower town of Modica, a slate tablet of the Madonna and Child was found in a bramble bush: as the tale goes, it burned for three days without being consumed, and the people insisted that a sanctuary rise on the spot. The Madonna delle Grazie would go on, in 1627, to become the city's principal patron.
What to see
The work was entrusted to the Syracusan architect Vincenzo Mirabella, who died in 1624 before seeing it finished: inside, a mausoleum holds his remains. From the early seventeenth century survive the refined side portal, with its late-Renaissance decoration beneath a broken pediment, and probably the bell tower. The main front, instead, was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake in late Baroque: its sturdy, projecting twin columns closely recall those of the Duomo di San Giorgio, a little higher up. On the apse vault, a painting shows Mary against the backdrop of the city with the inscription Ecce Mothuca Mater Tua.
Visiting
The sanctuary, raised to a minor basilica in January 2015, stands in lower Modica: a natural stop on the way down from the cathedrals above. It is worth going in to find Mirabella's mausoleum and to read, on the apse, that dedication that makes the Madonna the mother of Modica.
Our editors' tip
Compare the façade with that of the Duomo di San Giorgio: the same projecting columns tell of the same school of Baroque stonecutters. And if you love detail, pause at the early-seventeenth-century side portal, the oldest and finest part of the building.