Editor Pick
Basilica di San Nicola (St. Nicholas Basilica)
- May 5, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Tulipano from Bari, Italy
A key stop on any visit to Bari, the Basilica di San Nicola has a great story.
Bari believed that it needed a great saint in order to become a great city. Since during the middle ages stealing and killing in order to make your city more holy was not only accepted but encouraged, April 20, 1087, 62 sailors set out from Bari for Myra, Turkey. There these brave men stole the relics from the four pastors who guarded them. The bones were brought back to Bari, and the basilica was built to house them.
Inside, the Basilica is lovely and tranquil. There aren't too many grand paintings or statues, but it's cool and calm. You can also go down into the crypt to pray to the relics directly.
If you go around to the left side of the basilica, you can find some interesting bas reliefs which many people claim suggest that the Holy Grail is located in the church.
If you happen to be in Bari on December 5th or 6th, and go to the cathedral around 4 or 5 in the morning, you'll find hundreds of young women waiting to get inside. Legend says that if you walk three times around one of the columns in the crypt, you'll be married before the end of the new year. Most of the women who go these days go more or less as a kind of joke, but there are those who still believe in the tradition.
Bari also celebrates San Nicola on May 8, which is the day on which the bones arrived in the city. On this day, apart from the complete and utter non-existence of parking, you'll find a great deal of Slavs, especially Russians (whose patron saint is St. Nicholas), lights all over the city, a parade, and people out and about until the wee hours.
From journal Bari