Christmas itineraries: St. Nicholas Basilica in Bari

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

The Basilica of Saint Nicholas located in old town of BARI dela preserves the remains of St. Nicholas, miracle worker, but also known as "Santa Claus" or Santa Claus and a view to his house is worth around Christmas.
A brief history of the Basilica: The Basilica was built in the Court of Catapano, the residence of the Byzantine governor (greek) at the time that BARI was the capital of southern Italy (970-1071). Its good defensive position and the choice made by the representatives of the Emperor Bisanzio would think that since Roman times this was the area of civil aviation. E 'probable, therefore, that resided here before the Roman head, then the Gastaldo Lombard, and the Saracen emir and, finally, the catepano bizantino.I Baresi, in the desire to maintain the prestige of the city (which had lost the role capital) and generating a new impetus to trade, stolen from Myra (Turkey) the relics of St. Nicola (1087). The presence of these relics would raise, in fact, a considerable flow of pilgrims, as the Saint Nicholas more revered at that time.

The great enterprise, made by about seventy seamen (of whom 62 with BARI citizenship), he was told a year later by two writers, and John Arcidiacono Niceforo. They say that the arrival of the relics in BARI sparked a strong tension between the archbishop Ursone and the "middle class" citizen, and that was the Benedictine abbot Elijah to soothe the soul. He was therefore entrusted with the construction of the basilica, which required the demolition of four churches that were on the floor catepanale, remaining intact until now the only S. Gregorio.l 1 October 1089, after a council held in Melfi to eliminate the tensions between Boemondo and Ruggero Borsa (children of Guiscardo), Pope Urban II came to BARI reponeva and the relics in the central altar of the crypt, old classroom catepanale with Byzantine columns and capitals. The passage of the crusaders in 1096 and the council of 1098 accrebbero his already great notorietà.Nel seventeenth century, perhaps at the magnificent ceiling, was also rebuilt the roof, and the altar silver Uros II Milutin. Several restorations were begun by the middle of the eighteenth century and incorporated in the nineteenth century, but only those of 1928/30 led to the Basilica conformation, tending to give the building its original lines. On that occasion were removed subsequent alterations to the sixteenth century (including baroque chapels and frescoes dell'abside center) and, if it were not for the loss of most of the frescoes, now you could enjoy what the BARI admired nine centuries ago . The crypt, namely the underground church at the transept, was certainly the first part of the church to be completed. There is to be believed, in fact, that the Elijah abate use of an existing classroom building catepanale, perhaps by placing a capital nature from some liturgical churches of the Byzantine abbattute.Sull 'wave of Vatican II and of the improved relations between Catholics and Orthodox, the Holy See considered it appropriate to accept the vows of the Dominican fathers and of the Archbishop of BARI, Enrico Nicodemo, to accommodate a chapel in the Basilica where even the Eastern Orthodox would celebrate their liturgy.

Card. Paul Job, that all the then Gennadios archimandrite Zervos blessed the chapel, said: It 'the first time in a Catholic church was erected a chapel for the celebration of the liturgy Eastern. This realization is one of the many fruits of the Ecumenical Council. Two years after the Archbishop Nicodemus and the Dominican Fathers founded an Ecumenical Institute of Theology, where professors and students, both Catholic and Orthodox, they could teach and study in a spirit of fraternal friendship.
The iconostasis was made for the occasion by the Croatian Zlatko Latkovic, also dell'iconostasi of the chapel of East Berlin. Attracts the curiosity of visitors quell'INB1 instead of INRIA (Jesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum). The explanation is simple: in greek Rex is Basileus.