Basilica of San Nicola

The Basilica of Saint Nicholas is a church in Bari, southern Italy, that holds wide religious significance throughout Europe and the Christian world. The basilica is an important pilgrimage destination both for Catholics and Orthodox Christians. It was built between 1087 and 1197, during the Italo-Norman domination of Apulia, and its foundation is related to the recovery of some of the relics of Saint Nicholas from the saint's original shrine in Myra, in what is now Turkey. The church has a rather square appearance, with two low massive towers framing the facade, and its interior has a nave and two aisles, divided by granite columns and pilasters. The basilica houses one of the most noteworthy Romanesque sculptural works of southern Italy, a cathedra finished in the late eleventh century, and precious mosaic pavements in the crypt and presbytery