Modica is a municipality in south-eastern Sicily and is located in the Libero Municipal Consortium of Ragusa in Italy with 54,089 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2019). It is one of the late Baroque villages of the Val di Noto declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The city was founded by the Sicilians with the name of Motyka and was inhabited in later times by Greeks and Romans, but there are hardly any noteworthy traces of their presence. The Arabs conquered the city in 845 and named it Mohac. In the 11th century the Normans, led by Ruggero I, conquered the city.
Modica, like other towns in the Val di Noto, was destroyed by the serious earthquake of 9 January 1693 which caused the death of 60,000 people in Sicily. Rebuilt in Sicilian Baroque style, Modica, despite two floods in 1833 and 1902, is today a quiet regional center with one of the most beautiful Sicilian Baroque urban landscapes.