Ornavasso, in Bassa Ossola, was particularly devoted to San Nicola (St. Nicholas): it is said, in fact, that a citizen of the town, caught at sea in a fierce storm during a Crusade to the Holy Land, prayed to San Nicola for help and succeeded in saving himself from shipwreck. To celebrate this miraculous event, his descendants began building the new church.
Observing the Parish Church of San Nicolao in Ornavasso, it is possible to recognise the old sacristy, located in the room next to the altar of Sant’Antonio Abate. Inside the church, devotion of the town to Saint is testified by numerous paintings that are still today appreciable examples of his iconography.
The parish church was built on a raised site distant from the centre of Ornavasso, to defend it from enemy incursions and protect it from the flood of the San Carlo torrent. The old town centre developed around the church and became the centre of religious and political life, with the castle, the town hall and the square.
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