Church of San Nicola

It is one of the oldest churches in Stroncone and it is known with certainty that in 1181 the Stroncone Consuls donated it to the Abbey of S. Benedetto in fundis, as testified by a plaque on the wall to the left of the door.

The church underwent restoration work over the centuries that completely altered the original architectural lines. All that remains of the original structure is the main entrance adorned with bas-reliefs in Byzantine style and a panel with the Coronation of the Virgin, the work of Rinaldo di Calvi, one of Lo Spagna's best students. On the bas-relief, the elegant frieze that, starting from the mouth of an animal at the bottom of the right jamb, running along the entire architrave and ending in a group of leaves at the bottom of the left jamb supported by an Attic base, stands out.

The door is surmounted by a raised stone archivolt and in the centre of the architrave a mystic lamb with eagles at the two corners is carved which, together with the lamb, repeats the development of the frieze on a smaller scale. Inside, one can admire paintings and frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries, a well-made marble tabernacle of holy oils and in the sacristy, a marvellous polyptych depicting the Coronation of the Virgin by Rinaldo da Calvi (1520-1521).

According to archival sources, there were five chapels inside the church: St. George, St. Andrew, St. John the Baptist, as well as the companies of Annunziata and St. Charles Borromeo.