The Church of S. Nicola di Bari, located in the hamlet of Rovella in the municipality of Zumpano (CS), is a building of considerable historical and artistic interest.

Zumpano ”among the noblest Baglive of Cosenza, writes Fr. Giovanni Fiore from Cropani, is a charming town of about 2600 inhabitants, nine kilometers from Cosenza.

Here Francis (later Fr. Francesco, an Augustinian, who died in honor of holiness) saw the light on the eighth day of July 1445 ”.

Serious reasons validate the opinion that the village-fraction of Zumpano, called Rovella, at least around the end of the 1400s or the beginning of the 1500s, laid the foundations of a first agglomeration of families, moved by the piety of their fellow countryman and aggregated in the name and in devotion to the Holy Virgin, under the title of the Addolorata.

It must therefore be assumed that the parish church, today dedicated to S. Nicola di Bari, dates back to the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century and in any case no later than 1530, the year of the death of Father Francesco.

In the architectural lines the Church reflects what is the artistic history of the time, proposing the same styles that are regularly found in other churches of the Diocese of Cosentina.

Holy water stoup with a basin supported by a column-bearing lion
Holy water stoup with a basin supported by a column-bearing lion

The building has a single nave, with stucco ornaments running along the walls.

Inside you can see the main altar in masonry and stucco with a representation of the Madonna del Carmelo and two canvases placed in the presbytery, respectively depicting S. Francesco di Paola and S. Paolo Eremita.

Along the walls of the nave there are three small frescoes depicting St. James, the Guardian Angel of St. Peter; on the side of the entrance door you can see a basin with a stoup supported by a column-bearing lion, the work is dated 1547.

In the sacristy there is also a carved wooden confessional, most likely the work of local workers, dating back to the last twenty years of the 15th century.

On the right side of the Church there are other rooms created later (chapel and sacristy).

The conditions, aesthetic deficient, caused by the lack of maintenance over time, have caused the collapse of the roof and damage to the residual structures of the plant.In recent years, a beneficial repair intervention has restored the destroyed roofs of the Church and the load-bearing structures guaranteeing the destroyed roofs of the Church and load-bearing structures guaranteeing the permanence of the sacred immovable, which it is hoped will return to its original use and enjoyment by the faithful.