THE BASILICA OF SAN NICOLA

Photo: Renato Gatta

The Basilica of San Nicola, yearly visited by a great number of pilgrims coming from all over Italy and from abroad, dates back to the second half of 13^th century. The portal, for which we are indebted to the famous 15^th-century soldier of fortune Nicolò Mauruzi, also known as “Il Tolentino”, was build between 1432 and 1435 by the Florentine sculptor Nanni di Bartolo “Il Rosso” (The Red).
The monumental 14^th century cloister is made of thirty spans supported by columns of different shapes with Romanesque capitols. On the walls, frescoes representing Saint Nicholas’ miracles, painted at

the end of the 17^th century. Inside the Basilica the ceiling in gilded caissons, work of Florentine artists (1620-1630),  was a product of the munificence of the Augustinian Giambattista Visconti. The coat of arms of his family, a crowned serpent swallowing a child, is repeated in the spaces between panels. The ceiling is 38,30 metres in length. Among the canvases which can be admired in the Basilica, worth mentioning are the “Visione di Sant’Anna” (Vision of Saint Anna) by Guercino (1640) and the “San Tommaso da Villanova” (Saint Thomas of Villanova), attributed to G. Ghezzi (1663).

Photo: Giorgio Semmoloni

Façade particulars