San Nicola
By far the most popular tourist attraction in Bari is the Basilica, which was built to house the relics of Saint Nicholas.At first glance it is simple, massive and somewhat forbidden, but a closer look reveals attractive details in the sculptures around its portals, where the stone animals seem to guard the entrances.Inside, above the large altar, there is a tabernacle from the twelfth century, and to the right of the altar is Madonna with the saints of Vivarini, painted in 1476. In the apse there is a throne of the bishop of marble and the tomb of Bona Sforza from the sixteenth century, the wife of King Sigismund II of Poland and the last Duchess of Poland.Silver from 1684, under which there is a vault containing the remains of Saint Nicholas.The remnants of the saint came to Bari from their original altar in Myra, now part of Turkey, when that city fell into the hands of the Saracens.They were stolen and, after a lot of quarrel by Venice, who also wanted them, were brought here with the justification that the Saint had chosen Bari as a funeral place as he headed for Rome.