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Bari

Basilica di San Nicola

Relics of Saint Nicholas, Puglian Romanesque prototype, Orthodox pilgrimage, stolen saint of 1087.

Photograph · Basilica di San Nicola

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Basilica di San Nicola facts that matter

Names, makers, dates, and context before the story opens up.

What it isChurch
WhereBari, Puglia
Known forRelics of Saint Nicholas, Puglian Romanesque prototype, Orthodox pilgrimage, stolen saint of 1087

The story

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Bari's sailors stole Saint Nicholas from Myra in 1087 and the city built the prototype of Puglian Romanesque to hold him. Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims still share the crypt, where the saint's relics are said to exude manna.

Verified details

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Basilica di San Nicola is a church in Bari’s old city built to house the relics of Saint Nicholas after their 1087 arrival in Bari, as the Basilica and Archdiocese record. It must not be reduced to a generic Romanesque monument: the church’s architectural, devotional and civic histories are intertwined.1,2

Construction began in 1087 under Abbot Elia. The crypt was ready for Pope Urban II’s 1089 consecration and deposition of the relics beneath its altar; the church as a whole was consecrated on 22 June 1197. This is a staged medieval building history, not a one-year construction date.1,3

The Archdiocese identifies the basilica as a major work of Apulian Romanesque architecture: a tripartite façade with three portals, a massive transept, and an interior of three aisles divided by columns and piers. Its account also records reused material from earlier churches, a reason visible fabric cannot be treated as a uniform single-phase design.1

The crypt is the subterranean church beneath the presbytery and transept and was the first part of the church completed. Its 1089 role in the institution’s relic history makes it a related sacred space with its own architecture and conservation needs, rather than a decorative room or a synonym for the basilica.3

Sources and citations (3)
  1. Arcidiocesi di Bari-BitontoStoria — Pontificia Basilica San NicolaHistorical accountRead source
  2. Basilica di San NicolaLa traslazione delle reliquie di San NicolaTranslation accountRead source
  3. Basilica di San NicolaLa criptaCrypt introductionRead source

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