Count of Modica's Castle

The Middle-age castle in the centre of Alcamo

It had been built between 1340 and 1350 by the Chiaramontes and got its name after the Modica Counts who own it from 1410 to 1812. Its plan is rhomboid and there are four towers with different shape.

Its building started in 1340 and it was finished by Chiaramontes in 1350. Until XVI it had been a luxurious stay and a fortress. After the Counts of Modica sold it in 1812, it became property of the town of Alcamo in 1828 and used for public purposes but even as a jail and as a stable so, after that it asked for a hard restore. Later it housed a folk life Museum, the Sicilian historical enoteca, a wine and traditions museum, a permantent exhibit of Sicilian Pupi, and an exhibit of Nicola Rubino sculptures.
The castle's plan is rhomboid and at its centre there is a  rectangular court yard. The building shows  strong rough materials but at its corner the big stones are perfectly squared and  each other interlocking. The four towers are coupled in shape: two of them are squared while two have a round plan. The squared and higher one, was the place where prisoners were tortured, the second squared tower was used exclusively by the guards; the round plan towers housed the owners rooms and the guest's rooms. On the castle's walls open several windows: mullioned and three-mullioned in the Gothic and Catalan taste. On the ground floor there was a chapel with the rooms for the chaplain and his servants besides a isolation cell, while on the first floor there were the big parlor, the count's studio and the bed-rooms. It had three main doors opening each on a square.