The arch over the southern gate shows Romanesque influence, courtesy of occupation by the Kingdom of Sicily from the 11th century to the 14th century. Influenced by the reburial of Saint Nicholas by Urso, the Archbishop of Bari Urso, in Bari in 1089 (after the destruction in 1034 of the church where he was buried in his hometown of Myra), the Normans built churches to him extensively including the one in Kurjan. Occupying Normans during the Byzantine–Norman wars extensively patronized the local churches, including Our Lady of Apollonia just west of Kurjan, featuring a Romanesque portico dating to the time of Robert Guiscard.