The Nicolaian Citadel is one of the places that houses some fragments of the so-called “Instruments of the Passion”, found according to tradition by Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine. These relics, particularly venerated and historically controversial, would be the objects used for the crucifixion of Christ: the True Cross, the nails, the Crown of Thorns. In particular, in the chapel of the relics, it is kept in its original reliquary, known as “the Angevin Cross”. A fragment of the True Cross, donated to the Basilica in 1301 by Charles II of Anjou, particularly devoted to the cult of St. Nicholas.
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