The church of San Nicola di Bari is in via Garibaldi, in the Sacca district of Lanciano; beside it is the tiny church of San Rocco. It was built on the remains of the church of San Pellegrino, destroyed by a fire in 1226, and is one of the oldest in the district: according to tradition the work was finished in the course of the thirteenth century, and in 1319 it became a parish. To the Gothic church the seventeenth century added Baroque alterations that widened the plan to a nave and two aisles. In the nineteenth century, when it was in poor condition, Filippo Sargiacomo restored it in Neoclassical style: an unhappy intervention, which covered the frescoes and impoverished the interior.
What to see
Outside, the Gothic survives in the lower part, with the pointed doorway beneath the statue of St Nicholas, between the arms of the town and those of the Ricci family, who had the patronage of some chapels; the upper part is Neoclassical. The fifteenth-century bell tower, late Gothic, is massive, with two-light windows, one of which was opened up entirely to fit the largest bell. Inside, the nave and aisles have four bays; the walls follow the lie of the hill, so that the left aisle widens towards the presbytery while the right one narrows. On the high altar a Neoclassical aedicule holds the statue of St Nicholas saving the children from drowning.
The church keeps an octagonal wooden baptismal font, painted with the Baptism of Christ, and the icon of the Madonna and Child popularly called «Mamma nostra», a copy of an original that was lost. In the presbytery are two paintings of 1936 with miracles of St Nicholas, by the Roman Innocenzo Giammaria; the stained-glass windows are by Michele Cianfrone of Lanciano, of 1999.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish. The objects of the parish museum are in temporary deposit at the Museo diocesano di Lanciano.
Our editors' tip
Ask to see the room beneath the bell tower. In the nineties, during the restoration of the choir loft, the parish priest discovered there a fourteenth-century cycle of frescoes with the Stories of the True Cross, inspired by the Golden Legend: the death of Adam with the tree growing from his mouth, Solomon having the tree cut down, the queen of Sheba kneeling before the wood, the battle of Constantine.
