Legend of Jana di Motta
Legend tells the story of the White Princess of Navarre, regent of the Kingdom of Sicily, and her court maid Jana.
The story takes place in August 1408, the year in which Queen Bianca of Navarre, widow of King Martin, became regent of the Kingdom of Sicily. It was then that Bernardo Cabrera, the Count of Modica, a very greedy man, began to court the Queen very insistently in order to have her as his wife and enrich his power. The Queen rejected the Count's advances several times and, fed up with the continuous pursuits, ordered her faithful admiral, Sancho Ruiz de Livori, to capture the Count of Modica and lock him up inside the castle of Motta Sant'Anastasia. It is said that the count was initially locked up in a cistern, known as the Cisterna del Cabrera, but that this, due to various storms, filled completely with water, and it was therefore necessary to transfer him to a room in the tower.
The historical news is now replaced by legend: it is said that Queen Blanche of Navarre devised a plan against her obstinate suitor, appointing Jana, a court damsel from Motta, to Saint Anastasia, to be hired into the count's service by disguising herself as a page. Jana, on the queen's instructions, convinced the count to devise a plan to escape from the castle. On Jana's advice, the count disguised himself as a peasant and lowered himself from a castle window via a rope held by Jana. So it was that Jana deliberately let go of the rope, causing the count to fall into a net. The following morning the farmers found him and mistook him for a thief. The count was then sent as a prisoner to the Ursino Castle in Catania. From then on the count no longer bothered the queen.
