Parish church of San Nicola

The parish church is the result of the reconstruction of the previous church (which dates back to 1532 and which was probably built on an older church), which was carried out in 1728 by the Valsesian architect Jean Fer (or Ferro) as well as the subsequent additions and transformations: the building of the main altar in 1741 (which is also the work of an artist from Valsesia, Giovanni Battista Gilardi) and the side altars (three of which were built by a craftsman from Val d’Ayas, Claude-Maurice Freydox) between 1864 and 1868, at the same time as the creation of the two naves.

The original church, which presumably dates back to the 14th century, appears to coincide, at least in the part of the choir, with the chapel of the Bard castle. The baroque style altars made of engraved, painted and partially gilded wood, are complete with statues of saints, among which, at the centre of the main altar, there is that of Saint Nicholas, the patron of the parish. Around the alcoves in which the statues of the saints are housed, there are numerous tortile columns and statues of little angels.

At the bottom of the church, in the left hand nave, a parochial museum has been set up with the statues taken from the district chapels to save them from the numerous thefts that had occurred during the previous decades and that had significantly reduced the parish’s artistic and sacred patrimony.