Basilique Saint-Nicolas-de-Port

Saint-Nicolas-de-Port

This cathedral without a bishop, one of the masterpieces of Lorraine's Flamboyant Gothic, was born of a relic: according to tradition, the knight Aubert de Varangéville stole a finger bone of Saint Nicholas from Bari around 1098 and brought it back to a village on the banks of the Meurthe. The pilgrimage grew to European proportions from the 12th century and made Saint Nicholas the patron of Lorraine, honoured through the legend of the three children rescued from a butcher's salting-tub, which the Lorraine ballad still sings. Two miracles anchor the sanctuary in history: the deliverance of Cunon de Réchicourt, a prisoner in the Holy Land around 1240, whose chains are said to have fallen off by themselves on the eve of his execution, and the vow of Queen Marguerite of Provence, who in 1254 gave a votive ship after a storm. Joan of Arc is said to have come to pray here before joining the Dauphin; above all, Duke René II prayed here on the eve of the Battle of Nancy and, victorious over Charles the Bold on 5 January 1477, funded the present building, raised from 1481 to 1560. Sacked by the Swedes in 1635, the basilica has kept the legend of the "weeping pillar", in which a monk fleeing the sword is said to have been enclosed by the stone, and whose chanting some claim still to hear by pressing an ear to the shaft. Saved in the 20th century by the bequest of Camille Croué-Friedman, a local woman who survived a shipwreck she attributed to Saint Nicholas, it was restored from 1983 to 2005.

Site officiel de la basilique Saint-Nicolas-de-Port ↗

Getting there : 12 km south-east of Nancy, TER station on the Nancy–Lunéville line. Basilica in the town centre, 1 rue des Trois-Pucelles, open for free visits, guided tours and tower climb depending on the season. The great occasion is the torchlight procession of Saint Nicholas, on the Saturday nearest 6 December, when the relic is carried through the nave.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound