San Nicola, Bari: the crypt, the manna, the hours

The Basilica of San Nicola in Bari opens at 6:30 am and entry to both the church and the crypt is free, on an offering basis (2026).

Open 6:30 am to 8:30 pm, and later on Sunday

Monday to Saturday the doors are open 6:30 am to 8:30 pm, and on Sunday 6:30 am to 10 pm (06:30 to 20:30 and 22:00 on Italian signs). Entry costs nothing; an offering is the convention.

Weekday masses are at 7:30 am, 9:30 am and 6:30 pm. On Sundays and feast days there are 7, at 7:30, 9, 10:30, noon, 1 pm, 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm, and the 1 pm one is suspended from July to September.

Confessions run 9 am to noon and 5 pm to 6:30 pm on weekdays. The address is Largo Abate Elia 13.

The crypt: 30.69 by 14.81 meters, under 26 columns

The crypt measures 30.69² by 14.81² meters and its cross vaults rest on 26 columns of different marbles, among them Numidian, coral breccia, Carystian and Greek.

It was the first part of the basilica to be finished, in 1089², which is why the building reads from the bottom up: the church above came later.

Under the main altar is the tomb of the saint. In the same space are the tomb of abbot Elia, dated 1105², an eastern Orthodox chapel granted to Orthodox worship, and the column known as the miraculous one.

May 9, 1087: 62 men and 3 ships

The relics reached Bari from Myra, in Lycia, on May 9, 1087³, brought by 62 sailors and merchants of the city in 3 ships.

Building began on July 8, 1089², and on October 1 of the same year Pope Urban II laid the relics under the crypt altar. The commission came from the Benedictine abbot Elia, archbishop of Bari from 1089².

The saint at the center of all this is Nicholas of Myra, the figure Santa Claus descends from. Bari is where the bones are.

The manna: 1 evening a year, half a liter

The manna is the liquid that gathers in the tomb, and it is drawn on the evening of May 9 each year, half a liter in an average year.

Analysis in 1925 described water of unusual purity. Whether the source is miraculous or natural is still disputed, and the basilica does not close the argument.

Here is the part the shops do not advertise, and which the basilica states plainly: the small bottles given to the faithful contain holy water into which the manna drawn on May 9 has been poured, not liquid taken directly from the tomb.

Getting down to the crypt

A ramp and a lift serve the crypt, so the tomb is reachable without stairs during the 14 hours the church is open on a weekday.

The Dominican friars have been custodians of the basilica since 1951. The neighboring Museo Nicolaiano runs its own ticket desk, whose prices are not documented on the basilica pages, so they are not printed here.

Everything above comes from pages of the basilica itself, one voice rather than two independent ones. For the region, see Puglia.

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