Modica and the rock church explained by the apprentice tour guides

The FAI Spring Days have concluded, which in Modica focused attention on the precious rock church of San Nicolò Inferiore.

The “apprentice tour guides” from the Istituto Comprensivo Santa Marta-Ciaceri and the Istituto Superiore Giovanni Verga accompanied the public in discovering one of the oldest monuments in the city, whose apse, with four cycles of frescoes, tells – like an illustrated book – the history of Sicily from the Middle Ages to today.

There was a notable turnout of visitors, including foreigners, guided by the students with precise illustrations in French and English about the peculiarities and characteristics of the church carved into the rock.

Among the “apprentice tour guides” welcoming the public were Bianca Di Grandi, Alessandro Profetto, and Alessio Di Stallo, from the 3rd B class of the Santa Marta-Ciaceri institute, directed by Principal Grazia Basile. The project was curated by teachers Antonella Abbate, Marisa Mendola, and Federica Agosta, while the organization of the site was overseen by Sabrina Tavolacci.

The Spring Days also kicked off the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Byzantine church, opened in 1996, when the Centro Studi sulla Contea di Modica, the owning entity, acquired the rock jewel to protect it and return it to the community. The management was initially entrusted to Coop. Etnos and later to the Associazione Culturale Via.

Entirely carved into the rock, San Nicolò, known as “Inferiore” due to its location in Modica Bassa, was the parish of the Greek-speaking high medieval neighborhood and today represents the most significant testimony of hypogean architecture from the Norman period in the Val di Noto.

The pictorial cycle, with frescoes dating back to the 12th, 14th, and 16th centuries, documents the transition from the Greek Orthodox rite to the Latin rite, a unique testimony in South-Eastern Sicily, devastated by the earthquake of 1693.

The presence of iconostasis and syntronon even suggests an origin as a church of Eastern rite, to be placed around the 9th century.

The discovery of the site had the contours of a miracle: the image of the Christ Pantocrator – a depiction of Jesus in glory typical of Byzantine art – appeared to a boy who, at the end of the 1970s, boldly entered a dammuso to retrieve a ball. The young man reported the incident to Duccio Belgiorno, then director of the Civic Archaeological Museum, but it was only officially discussed starting in 1987.

Considered the oldest church in Modica, it consists of a single room of about 45 square meters, with the apse completely covered with icons in Byzantine style: at the center dominates the Christ Pantocrator, inscribed in a large mandorla and surrounded by angels.

Archaeological investigations have uncovered numerous earthly tombs at the pavement level, most of which are still unexplored.

The grotto, due to the collapses attributed to the earthquake of 1693, is truncated at the front and concealed by the former masonry church of San Nicolella, now used as a garage.

In 2021, San Nicolò Inferiore became a “Place of the Heart” of the Italian Environment Fund, which financed the restoration of the frescoes.

For thirty years, the church has welcomed visitors from all over the world, as a testament to a Modica that is not just baroque or chocolate: there is a more secret heritage, no less fascinating, to discover on a journey dedicated to Sicilian troglodytism, which in this area recalls places like the caves of Chiafura in Scicli and the rocky landscape of Cava d'Ispica.