At Modica, in the Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions, the arts and crafts of the past live again, some still presenting points of contact with the present day. A feature of the Museum is the way the exhibits are displayed in their natural environment, i.e. in faithful reconstructions of artisan workshops that testify directly to their manner of use. One can admire, for instance, a characteristic Sicilian cart, an ancient method of transport that varies in size and elegance in relation to the importance of the family owning it, and the workshops of typical local artisans, such as the honey-man, the cabinet-maker, the saddler, the blacksmith, the cobbler, the tinker who soldered pots and jugs, the cane-worker, the carpenter, the stonemason, the tailor, the repairer of carts, the barber, and the confectioner. One of the greatest draws of this Museum, which occupies the first floor of the 18th-cent. former Convent of the Mercenary Friars, is without a doubt the reproduction of a typical Modica farmstead, the home of a family that lived stably in the country, and a centre of rural life and economy. Here one can see a reconstruction of the courtyard with its unusual paving and the rooms of the farmhouse, with the kitchen (containing a wide variety of utensils for the preparation and preservation of bread and the local cheeses), the bedroom, and the weaving-room.

Detail of Modica Ethnographic Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions