Basilica of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, Minor basilica in Tolentino, Marche, Italy
The Basilica of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino is a church in Tolentino, Marche, with a flat travertine facade of two bands: three doorways below, the central one a 1432–1435 Gothic portal by Nanni di Bartolo with a Saint George and the Dragon relief, and a rose window above. The interior has a gilded wooden coffered ceiling made by Filippo and Piero da Firenze between 1605 and 1628.
Founded as the church of San Giorgio between the 13th and 14th centuries, it was rededicated in 1476 to Nicholas of Tolentino, who had lived about thirty years in the adjoining Augustinian convent and died there in 1305. The lower facade was rebuilt in 1630 by Florindo Orlandi and the upper order completed in 1757 by Giovanni Andrea Ascani. In 1783 Pius VI made it the first minor basilica formally created by papal brief, Supremus Ille.
The basilica honors Saint Nicholas, a figure deeply connected to the town's religious identity and local devotion. Today, visitors can see how people continue to venerate him through the decorated chapels and artworks dedicated to his memory throughout the building.
The Cappellone di San Nicola opens onto the cloister, and the Chapel of the Sante Braccia, entered through a 17th-century portal, was rebuilt in 1670 for pilgrims. The church reopened partially on 16 December 2018 after the 2016 earthquake, with the nave back in use for Mass; the Cappellone reopened on 10 September 2026. The saint's body lies in the crypt built in 1932.
The saint's body was found in 1926 and placed in a crypt built in 1932; the Cappellone, a Gothic chapel off the cloister, keeps early 14th-century frescoes of his life painted within decades of his death in 1305.
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