In the 15th and 16th centuries , the spread of emphyteusis and the privatization of the land by Governor Bernaldo Del Nero made the city of Modica the foremost in the south-east of Sicily . The lower part of Modica grew with churches , high-class palaces and monasteries , until the 1693 earthquake that killed over 60,000 people in Sicily from Catania to Syracuse and destroyed numerous buildings . The Late Baroque architecture of Val di Noto is the result of reconstruction following the earthquake
1693 earthquake
1693 Sicily earthquake
County of Modica