Chiesa Matrice S. Nicola di Bari

The church is located on Via XXV Aprile, it has a longitudinal plan with three naves, with protruding semicircular apses and is oriented to the south-west. The main façade, with interrupted salient points, which denounce the internal division with three naves, is defined by two powerful beam pillars. The entrances are framed by a double frame decorated with ovules and on the left of the façade there is a bell tower completed by a spire. The interior has a flat roof. The proposal to build a new Matrice church located outside the city walls was carried out by the people of Roccella since 1852 by establishing a voluntary subscription for the collection of the sum necessary for the works. But bureaucratic delays and lack of funds did slip construction even 1927. But probably the project had to meet other obstacles seen that while the ancient Mother Church was still a matter of maintenance and to be used for solemn functions . In 1927 a first project was drawn up for the new church that was to be built on land indicated by the Municipal Administration and in any case in the area of ​​the new expansion, precisely in the Quadro Fund. The designer proposed a basilica with three naves to be built according to the criteria of anti-seismic construction and choosing a «southern baroque style felt with modern inspiration». However, the project actually carried out was the one presented by the engineer Giuseppe Foderaro. The church preserves the marble altars that were found in the ancient Matrix and were transferred here in part following the instructions given by the Superintendency for Antiquities and the Arts of Bruzio and Lucania in 1931 together with the oval medallions of the consecrated crosses. In particular the minor altars were placed along the walls of the side aisles as well as the main altar dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari, located in the left aisle; the altars that were placed in the chapels on the sides of the apse of the ancient church were transferred one, that dedicated to the SS. Sacramento, in the apse, thus becoming the main altar of the new church, the other, dedicated to the immaculate Conception, in the left apse. Although they can be traced back to the same artisan workshop, they can be ascribed to two distinct decorative programs that were expressed in the use of different materials and shapes. The apsidal basin is decorated with a fresco by the roccellese painter Raffaele Ursini (1851-1945) in which is represented “The descent of the Holy Spirit among the Apostles. The fulcrum of the concavity of the apse is a wooden crucifix dating from the XVI century and recently restored, while the apse to the right of the minor is placed a large wooden statue of the Risen Christ dating back to the eighteenth century. In the aisle on the left of the altar, protected by a wooden reliquary, is a composition in papier mache representing the Trinity, restored in 1938, probably eighteenth century, in which in a surprising way affects the expressive quality and the definition of the details of the faces of the Father and the Son. The interior walls are almost entirely covered by paintings made in the modern era that have upset the desire for simplicity shown by the designer, compromising the perception of the fresco and the eighteenth-century altars. (From the book CHURCHES OF ROCCELLA JONICA by Eleonora Uccellini, curated by Simonetta Valtieri - Gangemi Editore, 2006, pp. 260-261)

Unique and suggestionante ....

Very well kept, several interesting statues inside.

Small, cozy, worthy place of prayer

Church with Holy Priests