Saint Nicolas was born in 255 to Patare, city situated in the southwest of Asia Minor, in the period when the Christian religion is secret. Young man orphan and fortunate, he decides to dedicate his life to fight against the misery. Become a bishop of Myre, city situated in current Turkey, he distinguishes itself by his big generosity and his humanism. So, in his lifetime, as well as after his death arisen on December 6 334, one attributes him numerous miracles, a legend of which we have today

The three children and the butcher :
Three misled children take refuge at a butcher's. Having made them have dinner, he cuts them in small fragments and throws them in salting tub. Seven years later, Saint Nicolas asks to enjoy it salted. The butcher becomes afraid and runs away. Saint Nicolas approaches then the salting tub and in fact to take out the children as if they had just woken up

Saint Nicolas is the Boss of the Lorraine, the pupils and the navigators today. His popularity is the occasion of different demonstrations honouring him. Summer Saint Nicolas is a religious holiday, it symbolizes the return of the body of the bishop of Myre to Bari, in Italy, but it is also a heathen holiday because fairground entertainers and peddlers participate in it. Winter saint Nicolas is celebrated Saturday the most close to December 6, anniversary of the death of the Holy Man. After the parade of tanks and brass bands, a religious ceremony takes place in the Basilica.

The basilica

When a Lord of return of crusade brings back a phalanx of Holy Nicolas, he does not still know that this one is going to be at the origin of numerous miracles. Pilgrims' reception, always more numerous, justifies then the construction of a bigger church, a testimony of gratitude of René II. And so in 1481, begin the construction of the Basilica, which will be dedicated in 1560. From then on, Dukes and famous persons of Lorraine, Princes and Kings of France succeed one another to ask for the protection of Holy Nicolas.

The Basilica undergoes important damages during the XVII-th century while the city loses of its commercial importance. She(it) is restored bit by bit but the French Revolution and the bombardment of 1940 finish damaging the building. Pie XII dedicates her basilica in 1950.

In 1980 Camille Croué-Friedman, Portoise of origin, emigrated in the United States, bequeaths to the Bishop's palace a fabulous sum which allows to realize the complete restoration of the Basilica. The building is exceptional by the unity of its architecture. It is characterized by a big sobriety of style and especially by an abnormality of the nef, due to bad evaluations of the composition of the ground. His(her) plan of type basilical, in shape of Latin cross, as well as its western facade, confer her a harmony and make one of the Gothic blazing buildings the most majestic of Meurthe-et-Moselle. The Treasury consists of several inestimable details(rooms), of which the Arm reliquary of Holy Nicolas in vermeil, now and money.

Maison du Tourisme
13bis, rue Anatole France
54210 Saint-Nicolas-de-Port
Tel : 03.83.48.58.75 - Fax : 03.83.46.80.01
maison-tourisme@saintnicolasdeport.com