Italiano
The Chiesa S. Nicola, also known as the Church of St. Nicholas, originated as an oratory thanks to the chaplaincy established by Caterina Cavalleri née Girelli. Through this endowment, a chaplain would celebrate mass daily. In the mid-18th century, the chaplaincy was passed down to the Maggi family through inheritance. It wasn’t until 1871 that it became a church connected to the Parish of Santa Maria Assunta in Erbusco.
The church of San Nicola is located below street level on the main road. The east-facing facade opens onto a small square and is typically seventeenth-century in style. It features four wide flat pilasters that divide the surface into three compartments. In the central panel, below the tympanum, lies a semicircular lunette. The south and east facades exhibit the same spatial repetition of pilasters. On the western corner, a bell tower rises, culminating in a belfry with four openings.
To the west, the apse is attached to the perimeter wall of the adjacent house, while the north facade is characterized by a tall window and a side entrance. Inside, at the center of the raised presbytery, stands the main altar made of inlaid marble adorned with floral elements and geometric motifs, reflecting the style of the late sixteenth century.
A rich cornice with two columns bearing vine tendrils and an elaborate entablature frames the seventeenth-century altarpiece. It represents the classic division between the earthly and divine realms, with a triangular arrangement of figures: the Virgin Mary at the top and St. Nicholas and St. Rocco below.