The cathedral, consecrated to St. Nicholas, is located at the end of the High Arcades and is characterized by the bell tower, one of the highest in the region, which measures 83 m and is the emblem of the old city. This religious structure, the largest in Merano, is one of the first Gothic buildings in Tyrol and consists of a central body with three naves.
The church, with its crenellated façade, gives an impression of grandeur which is due above all to the massive, high bell tower (83 meters), with seven clocks arranged in pairs on the sides and at the base an ogival archway (with frescoes). On the southern side of the church there are two fifteenth-century portals; in a cuspidal aedicule there is a statue of S. Nicolò from the mid-fourteenth century.
The beautiful choir is also fourteenth-century, with stained glass windows, two of which are from the end of the fifteenth century (the others are neo-Gothic, from the nineteenth century).
Inside, above the north door and in the altars on either side of the chancel, there are three altarpieces by Martin Knoller; the wooden wing altar in the north aisle is attributed to the workshop of Hans Schnatterpeck.
