Porta dei Leoni

Heading north up Strade del Carmine will bring you to the doorstep of the Basilica di San Nicola, the first great Norman church in the south and the template for the restrained Puglian-Romanesque style that informed the architecture of so many of the region's churches.

At first site the façade seems shockingly plain, its odd triangular shape rearing up before you in white limestone blocks, flanked by two stunted towers (destroyed by earthquakes). It has a massive solidity and spareness about it, although here and there are some delightful ornamental details like the sculpted Porta dei Leoni on the north side, which depicts a series of chivalric scenes in bas relief. Its solid hulk sits astride four piazze known as the Corti del Catapano, as it's thought that the Byzantine governor's (catapan's) palace was once sited here. The building of the Basilica over the remains of the Byzantine palace may well have been intentional - a symbol of the victory of the Latin church over Eastern Orthodoxy.