Chiesa di Santa Maria di Betlem
It is one of three ancient collegiate of Modica, dating at fourteenth century. The facade is Renaissance in its first order of the late sixteenth century, designed by Corrado Rubino in 1571, then rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, to be completed between 1816 and 1821 in its second order, in Neoclassical style. The bell tower was built in 1897 by Giuseppe Garofalo Giannone. Church keeps inside a precious Palatine Chapel, also called Cabrera Chapel (1474-1520, National Monument), in late Gothic style. The arched entrance to the Chapel, with Arabs, Normans and Catalans decorative elements is 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, Chiaramonte Gothic. Monumental organ in wood of 1818, the coffered ceiling and floor are of the late nineteenth century. Well made, behind the altar, a large painting of Assumption of Virgin, painted by Gian Battista Ragazzi in 1713. Evocative permanent Monumental Nativity (1881), whose set design is by Fra' Benedetto Papale, with 62 terracotta figurines from Caltagirone.
