Sicily to buy Quasimodo's birthplace in Modica after decades of negotiations

The Sicilian Region has allocated €400,000 in the 2024 budget to purchase Salvatore Quasimodo's birthplace in Modica, a protected house museum at Via Posterla. The Nobel laureate poet was born there on August 20, 1901. The property, owned by a local family, has been under negotiation for years to prevent private sale. The acquisition includes the ground floor and a garden extending to the Torre dell'Orologio. The museum, managed by Associazione Proserpina since 2016, features period furniture, the poet's Milan study recreated with his Olivetti Lettera 32, fountain pens, records, library fragments, and 27 abstract gouaches from 1953. Two new rooms opened in December 2016: a reading room and a multimedia room. The region first authorized acquisition in 1991 (L.R. 17/1991) and later for the archive in 1996. Former mayor Ignazio Abbate, now regional deputy, announced the deal. The €3.5 million package for Modica includes this purchase amid the city's financial crisis. A future integrated ticket with Castello di Modica is planned.