Saint Nicholas is the historic district of the city of Bari. Named "Bari Vecchia" by its inhabitants since the nineteenth century, it is located inside the ancient walls, separating it from the new town (whose construction began in starting from 1813 under the reign of Joachim Murat). Bari Vecchia is enclosed between the two ports of Bari (the old port and the new port), bounded on the south by Corso Vittorio Emanuele, while the new town extends between the railway and the coast, with streets in orthogonal grid.

The ancient city (the so-called Old Bari) between ports new and old is bordered to the east by the walls that separate it from the seafront and is characterized by a typically medieval urban layout. The center, which is located on a small peninsula where it originally would have developed the first prehistoric settlements, is that portion of Bari more folk, still tied to ancient traditions: it is in fact a repository of memories and traditions that in the modern city is increasingly is likely to leave.

Bari Vecchia over the last decade has had a kind of redevelopment because of the opening of local long Piazza Mercantile, thus becoming more livable than in years 80/90.