Basilica di San Nicolò, Minor basilica in Lecco, Italy.

The Basilica di San Nicolò stands in an elevated spot in central Lecco, above Lake Como, with its southwest facade facing the water. A double staircase in grey stone leads up to a gabled neoclassical front topped by a triangular pediment and six fluted Ionic pilasters, with four semicircular niches beside the portal. The interior has three naves, a barrel-vaulted central nave and a semicircular apse ringed by an ambulatory with a matroneo.

The church is first documented in 1252 and appears in the Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani; the medieval building had three naves. On 23 August 1584 Carlo Borromeo moved the parish seat from Castello to Lecco. Rebuilding began in 1596 and continued in phases until 1774, when the neoclassical facade with triangular pediment and six Ionic pilasters was added. Giuseppe Bovara gave the church its present form between 1831 and 1862; the facade was finished in 1881-83 and the neo-Gothic bell tower was inaugurated on Christmas night 1904. It became a minor basilica on 22 January 1943.

The church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, patron of sailors and boatmen, celebrated on 6 December; a statue shows him with apples and a painting. The baptistery chapel, the only surviving part of the 13th-century church, holds a font dated 1596, and a medieval holy water stoup is also kept. Next door stands the parish Oratory of Saint Louis, still used by children, young people and families, with its chapel of the Immaculate Madonna.

The basilica is easy to reach on foot from central Lecco and sits close to the lakeshore, making it a natural stop on any walk through the area. The original baptistery chapel deserves a careful visit, as the interior is fragile.

The bell tower was designed by Giovanni Ceruti and built in stages between 1882 and 1904 on the remains of a circular Spanish bastion; it was inaugurated on Christmas night 1904. Its nine bells are tuned to B-flat 2, and the largest, cast by Giorgio Pruneri of Grosio, weighs 27 quintals. At 96 metres it is the tallest bell tower in the Archdiocese of Milan.