The Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari, Italy. Built in the XI century to house the relics of St Nicholas from an earlier palace of the Byzantine governor of the city.
The Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari, Italy. Built in the XI century to house the relics of St Nicholas from an earlier palace of the Byzantine governor of the city.
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Lombard Romanesque architecture… simple yet beautiful
“…in the spring of 1087, Italian sailors from Bari in Apulia seized part of the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Greek Orthodox monks in the church.”
“Adam C. English describes the removal of the relics from Myra as “essentially a holy robbery” and notes that the thieves were not only afraid of being caught or chased after by the locals, but also the power of Saint Nicholas himself.”
As per Wikipedia, the bones were pretty much stolen. It also mentioned that: “On 28 December 2009, the Turkish government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of Saint Nicholas’s skeletal remains to Turkey from the Italian government.” I am not sure if the Turkish government did so.
Beautiful
Yeah a bit interesting request by turks since they are all conquerers , true italians specially venetians did the pillaging part quite thoroughly about one century late, meltings of byzantian gold and reliquies was a popular sport in venice of the time.
It is a big attraction for Orthodox, you can see Eastern Europeans and Russians every day.