Bari – a city built on Santa’s bones?

About 925 years ago, a little city in the heel of Italy’s boot was looking for a way to promote itself as a tourism destination and the town fathers decided that what they needed was an attraction.

In the days before theme parks, the big tourist attractions were pilgrimage sites, so the city hatched a plan to acquire one.

Three ships and 47 sailors set sail in 1087 forMyra,Turkey, the site where St. Nicholas had been buried some 800 years previously. After convincing custodians at the church where the saint was buried that they were pilgrims, the pirates smashed open the grave, took most of the ancient relics, and carried them back toBari,Italy.

To this day, Italians and Turks do not quite agree on the details of what happened. In Italy, they say the relics of St. Nicholas were “saved” from Muslim-controlled Myra, but in Turkey they tend to use the word “stolen.”

When the sailors returned to Bari, there was a great celebration, the saint was reburied by Pope Urban II, and a large church known as the Basilica di San Nicola was built over the new burial site. So it was that Bari,Italy, became the official pilgrimage site for those wanting to pay their respects to St. Nicholas. The plan had worked.

Every year, Barire-enacts the arrival of the body of St. Nicholas from Turkey with a 10-day festival in early May. The highlight of the Festa di San Nicola is the “translation ceremony,” where a statue of St. Nicholas is paraded through the streets with 500 costumed attendants and taken out to sea and brought back to the Basilica. When the saint is returned, the bells of the basilica ring out through the streets of Barivecchia, the old town of the city. Even today, thousands of pilgrims travel to Bari from around the world to give thanks and worship at the tomb of San Nicola.

Legend has it that St. Nicholas has magic healing powers and it is said that a sweet-smelling clear liquid known as the “manna di San Nicola,” still seeps from his bones, filling the courtyard with a delicate sweet fragrance that can be detected by the faithful.

There is no doubt the town fathers of ancient Bari were industrious and creative in coming up with a plan to increase tourism to their fair city. ModernBariis one of the most prosperous cities in this under-touristed region ofItaly. You could say it is the city built on Santa’s bones.

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Posted by Admin1 on Dec 16, 2011