MUST SEE /
Church of Santa Maria di Betlem
Among the most beautiful Gothic monuments Siciliani. The church houses the Palatine Chapel, the painting of the Assumption and the monumental crib terracotta.
The church of St. Mary of Bethlehem is one of the three ancient collegiate (from 1645) of Modica, dating back to the fourteenth century. The front side is Renaissance style in his first order of the late sixteenth century, when it was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, to be completed between 1816 and 1821 in his second order, in neoclassical style.
Inside you will find the beautiful Palatine Chapel, also called Chapel Cabrera (1474-1520, National Monument), in late Gothic style, whose entrance arch presents decorative elements from the Arabs, Normans and Catalans, which make it one of the most beautiful monuments that architecture has produced in Sicily at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, even giving name to an artistic style, the Gothic of Chiaramonte. Behind the altar you can admire the large painting of the Assumption of the Virgin, painted by Gian Battista Ragazzi in 1713. You can’t miss either the beautiful monumental permanent earthenware crib, made by masters of Caltagirone, and representing the characters in Sicilian scenery and costumes . At the entrance of the church a line remembers the level reached by the water during the terrible flood that struck the city in 1902.
Inside you will find the beautiful Palatine Chapel, also called Chapel Cabrera (1474-1520, National Monument), in late Gothic style, whose entrance arch presents decorative elements from the Arabs, Normans and Catalans, which make it one of the most beautiful monuments that architecture has produced in Sicily at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, even giving name to an artistic style, the Gothic of Chiaramonte. Behind the altar you can admire the large painting of the Assumption of the Virgin, painted by Gian Battista Ragazzi in 1713. You can’t miss either the beautiful monumental permanent earthenware crib, made by masters of Caltagirone, and representing the characters in Sicilian scenery and costumes . At the entrance of the church a line remembers the level reached by the water during the terrible flood that struck the city in 1902.
Church of Santa Maria di Betlem on the map
