Basilica di San Nicola

The church of Santa Claus

Bari built the first great Norman Romanesque church in Apulia in 1087 to house the earthly remains of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century Turkish bishop renowned for his piety, kindness, and helpful miracles. History neatly turned him into a jolly fat man partial to red suits and snowy climes who delivers presents to children at Christmas.

The true story of Santa Claus
San Nicola, Bari's patron, is the most famous saint in the world—after the Virgin Mary, of course.

The man now buried beneath a mighty Romanesque church in Bari was once the Bishop of Myra (then part of Greece; today in Turkey), and he famously righted some very grievous wrongs in his day—which was the fourth century.

On one occasion he reassembled and resurrected a trio of children who had been murdered, dismembered, and pickled in barrels.

On another he tossed bags of gold into the window of a desperately poor man who was about to sell his three daughters into prostitution for he couldn't afford the dowries to see them married.

This affection for children and penchant for anonymous gift-giving are the attributes that stuck to San Nicola down the ages, long after 1087 when sailors from Bari kidnapped his remains and brought them here to be celebrated, and long after northerly countries, who knew the saint as "Nicholas," turned him into legend by fattening him up, dressing him in red and white, and giving him nicknames like "St. Nick" or "Santa Claus."

Where the flying reindeer come in, I have no idea.Santa Claus aside, the bishop did supposedly once save three virtuous but poor young women from a life of prostitution by secretly providing money for their dowries by tossing bags of gold through their window (though the legend that claims he resurrected three dead children he found pickled in a butcher's basement just might be apocryphal).

When St. Nick's home city of Myra fell to the Saracens, Venice and Bari both made plans to "rescue" his venerable bones. Bari beat Venice to the punch in 1087, making off with the relics despite the protests of their official Greek Orthodox guardians.

The church lies buried in the heart of Bari's Old City, overwhelming its tiny piazza with a tripartite facade flanked by mismatched, unfinished towers.

The central portal (main door) is an especially fine marriage of Arab, Byzantine, and native styles, with carved decorations and a griffin-crowned gable whose columns are support by two worn bulls.

Inside the apse, beyond the carved choir screen and altar, sits the Bishop's' throne, crafted in 1098 with telamones (columns carved to resemble people) supporting the legs.

In the crypt—a tiny forest of mismatched columns—there's usually a service going on before St. Nick's tomb, but you can quietly circulate to examine the Byzantine and Romanesque capitals carved with lions, griffins, and peacocks fighting.

In the treasury is a small museum of the usual golden reliquaries and other precious church items, including many Bohemian crystal bottles painted with scenes from the life of St. Nicola (these vials contain the famed "manna of San Nicola," some kind of watery condensation exuded by the saint's tomb and collected—about 50 ml of it—every May 9; the interesting thing about this miracle is that it also happened in the saint's original tomb in Myra, Turkey, so it can't but put down just to local quirky of construction and water infiltration).

Tips

• Attending mass: On weekdays, mass is held at 7:30am, 9am, 10am, and 6:30pm (the 10am mass only on Wednesdays in July-August).
  
  On Sundays, mass is at 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, noon, 1pm, 6:30pm, and 8:30pm (the 1pm mass is suspended in July-August)

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