What to See in Ravenna, a UNESCO Heritage Site

La ciudad de Ravenna, en Emilia Romaña, guarda un tesoro: se trata de ocho monumentos religiosos de los siglos V y VI d.C., inscritos por la UNESCO en la lista de patrimonio de la humanidad no solo por su refinamiento artístico, sino sobre todo por ser representativos de la historia de la ciudad en ese período.

En el transcurso de ciento cincuenta años, de hecho, Ravenna será la capital del imperio romano de Occidente, capital de los ostrogodos y capital del imperio bizantino en Europa. Cada uno de estos momentos históricos produjo monumentos bellísimos y simbólicos de los mensajes políticos y religiosos contemporáneos, narrados principalmente a través de un uso magistral del arte musivo que impresionó a Carl Jung e inspiró a Gustav Klimt.

Places of Interest in Ravenna: Main Monuments

Ravenna, Capital of the Western Roman Empire

In 402, Emperor Honorius decided to move the imperial residence from Milan, which was excessively exposed to the danger of invasions by the Visigoths of Alaric, to Ravenna, which thus became, in fact, the capital of the Western Roman Empire. The city during that period experienced significant expansion, its appearance as a provincial town changed radically, and its bishop became a metropolitan. From this period date the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and the Neonian Baptistery.

1 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia was an imperial funerary monument, probably built to bury Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius and regent of the Western Empire for her son Valentinian III. As in all the early Christian monuments of Ravenna, the very simple, plain brick exterior contrasts with the splendor and richness of the internal mosaic decoration, whose subjects develop, on multiple interpretative levels, the theme of the victory of eternal life over death. The dominant color is blue, which forms the background of the starry sky in the dome and the floral decorations framing the lunettes. In one of them, there is a representation of the Good Shepherd, a subject very common in the popular art of the catacombs but here in one of the earliest monumental representations. The Good Shepherd wears imperial robes, highlighting the similarity between the sovereign and God.

2 Neonian Baptistery

The mosaics of the Neonian Baptistery are a hymn to life, with the Baptism of Christ as the main scene. Here, the mastery in the use of mosaic tesserae manages to render even the transparency of the water of the Jordan River.

Ravenna, Ostrogothic Capital

In Ravenna, in 476, the king of the Heruli, Odoacer, deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus. This date conventionally marks the end of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages. In 488, the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, was commissioned by Zeno, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, to overthrow Odoacer. After a long siege of Ravenna, Theodoric finally emerged victorious in 493, and the city thus became the Ostrogothic capital. In the religious field, Theodoric was a follower of Arianism, the doctrine condemned during the Council of Nicaea, which upheld a substantial inferiority of the divine nature of Christ compared to that of God. However, he adopted a policy of détente toward Christians and Jews.

3 Archiepiscopal Chapel

The Archiepiscopal Chapel, built in 495 at the behest of Bishop Peter II, is a celebration of orthodox Christianity. The main mosaic represents Christ the Warrior crushing the beasts of Arian heresy: it is a clear message against Theodoric’s religious ideology, which was nonetheless tolerated by the ruler.

4 Saint Apollinaris New Church

In contrast, the church of Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, renamed Saint Apollinaris New when in the 9th century the relics of Saint Apollinaris were moved there from the homonymous basilica of Classe, was originally built as Theodoric’s palatine church and therefore consecrated to Arianism. For this reason, with the subsequent Byzantine conquest of Ravenna, it was re-consecrated to orthodox Christian worship, and the mosaics of the lower band of the central nave walls were significantly modified by Bishop Agnellus. The subject consists of two processions, respectively of Holy Martyrs and Holy Virgins. Their style is that typical of Byzantine art: the figures are repetitive and lack individual characterization, perspective and ground plane are absent, so they appear to float on a monochrome, flat background. On the sides of the two processions, there are some architectural elements that geographically locate the composition: on the left side of the procession of the Holy Virgins is depicted the port of Classe, with three ships aligned vertically to give a “bird’s eye” perspective.

On the right side of the procession of the Holy Martyrs, instead, appears Theodoric’s palace, in which the figures that were supposed to appear among the arches of the portico (certainly the king with his court) suffer damnatio memoriae and are replaced by some white tents.

5 Arian Baptistery

The Arian Baptistery, octagonal in plan, ideologically contrasts with the Neonian Baptistery, which is also called the “Baptistery of the Orthodox.” It is the only known baptistery in Italy that was built specifically for Arian worship. The surface area of its mosaic decoration is smaller than that of the Neonian Baptistery. The main subject is the same (the Baptism of Christ), but the figures are generally more flattened and simplified. The background is no longer blue, but golden, following a trend that aims to make the figures more abstract and symbolic and flooded with an otherworldly light. Identifying elements of Arianism in the baptistery requires considerable interpretative ability of the symbols. For example, in the depiction of the etimasia, i.e., the empty throne that Christ will occupy on the day of the universal judgment, his divine insignia (the alpha and omega) are absent, but there is a shroud, a sign of his human nature, consistent with Arian doctrine. The Arian Baptistery was built by the Gothic king Theodoric (493-526) as the baptistery of the ancient Arian Cathedral, now the Church of the Holy Spirit. It was later reconciled to orthodox worship at the time of Archbishop Agnellus, as an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

6 Mausoleum of Theodoric

The Mausoleum of Theodoric is unique compared to other contemporary monuments: it is indeed built in Aurisina stone instead of bricks, as a tribute to Diocletian’s palace in Split, and it has no mosaic decorations. The roof is made with a single block of stone almost eleven meters in diameter. Inside, there is a red porphyry basin, originally the sarcophagus of the ruler. The Mausoleum of Theodoric was erected around 520 AD, while King Theodoric was still alive, in the Gothic burial area. The decagonal construction, in large squared blocks of Aurisina stone, consists of two superimposed chambers. The upper, set-back order, is crowned by a circular cornice with a decorative frieze. The monument is covered by a monolith of exceptional size, with twelve double-pitched brackets.

Ravenna, Byzantine Capital

When Justinian became emperor of the East, he wanted to reconquer the western lands that in the meantime had fallen into the hands of the barbarians, including Ostrogothic Italy. He therefore undertook the so-called Gothic War which, by the middle of the 6th century, ensured him control of the peninsula. Ravenna was once again the capital, and to strengthen the power of the city, Justinian established the figure of the archbishop, conferring this role on Maximian, his trusted man. Ravenna remained Byzantine until 751, when it was conquered by the Lombards.

7 Church of San Vitale

Maximian completed the Church of San Vitale, a masterpiece of early Christian art in Ravenna. The church is made up of various juxtaposed geometric blocks (the central body, the apse, and the tiburium), particularly evident when admiring the building from the outside. The interior, however, is surprising: the masses are made light through the addition of apses open with a large number of arches, supported by perforated capitals and pulvini which literally seem to suspend the arches in the air.

The mosaics, dominated by golden backgrounds, the stuccoes, and the marbles create plays of light that further lighten the space, making the visit a unique experience. Among the mosaic representations stand out those of Justinian and his wife Theodora with their respective courts. The figures are portrayed frontally to give more hieratic solemnity, and the compositions strictly follow the hierarchical order of the characters. The position of the rulers, their garments, and the accompanying objects emphasize the theocratic value of the empire. References to orthodox Christianity are not lacking, especially the reaffirmation of the Trinity: the sky of the Apocalypse, for example, with its twenty-seven stars (a multiple of three) is a symbol of the fight against heresies.

8 Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe

A few kilometers from Ravenna is Classe, formerly the city’s port and the seat of a fleet of the Roman navy. The locality hosts the Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, built to house the relics of Apollinaris, the first bishop of Ravenna. The basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe was consecrated by Archbishop Maximian in 549 AD. It has a polygonal apse on the outside and a circular one inside with prothesis and diaconicon on the sides, and an early medieval crypt. Its elegant interior with three naves naturally leads the gaze towards the apse mosaic, in which the saint, in a praying pose, is at the center of a bucolic landscape.

Above him, the cross inscribed in a blue sky is indicated by the hand of God emerging from the clouds: once again, an affirmation of the orthodox interpretation of the divine nature of Christ.

The rich mosaic decoration includes the representation of Saint Apollinaris against the background of a green landscape in the apse basin, and the figures of the four bishops of Ravenna in the spaces between the windows (6th century), while in the presbytery are depicted the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the granting of privileges to the Church of Ravenna (7th century).

Other monuments and museums not to be missed in Ravenna

9 Theodoric’s Palace

The Theodoric’s Palace consists of a building of uncertain interpretation dating back to the 7th or 8th centuries; the currently most accredited opinion is that the ruin, consisting of a body with a large portal above which opens a wide niche provided with a bifora, corresponds to the narthex of the church of San Salvatore ad Calchi (whose last phase dates back to the 9th-10th century). In any case, the building stands in the ancient palace area, on the remains of Theodoric’s true palace and of a previous grand building. It currently houses interesting fragments of floor mosaic found on site (1st-7th century AD) inside and under the porch.

10 Dantean Center of the Conventual Franciscan Friars

Located in the former convent of San Francesco together with the Dante Museum, the collection, opened for the first time to the public in 1990 after the major restorations of the Franciscan cloisters, displays a selection of over 500 bronzes and more than 2000 medals and coins representing Dante or Dantean themes; one section is dedicated to Dantean illustrations and includes illustrated editions, graphic collections without text, oil and tempera paintings. Of particular importance are the largest and the smallest edition of the Divine Comedy and the microcalligraphic one by G. Cossovel (1888).

The second cloister, called “Cassa,” is the exhibition space for the International Medal Biennale, small Dantean sculpture and art exhibitions dedicated to Dante curated by the Dantean Center. In the large room between the two cloisters on the first floor of the minorite complex is the library of the Center which, founded in 1964 by Father Severino Ragazzini, houses about eleven thousand volumes including manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century books, and translations of Dante’s works.

11 Dante Museum

The Dante Museum located in the former convent of San Francesco, on the first floor of the seventeenth-century cloister called “Dante,” next to the Poet’s tomb, decorated with a bas-relief by Pietro Lombardo in 1483, and rebuilt in 1780 by Camillo Morigia. It is divided into two sections respectively curated by the Opera di Dante of the Municipality of Ravenna and the Dantean Center of the Conventual Franciscan Friars. The first, inaugurated in 1921 on the initiative of the Committee for the celebrations of the sixth centenary of Dante’s death coordinated by Corrado Ricci, collects the tributes sent in 1908 and 1921, when the D’Annunzian enterprise of Fiume had made Dante the symbol of Irredentism, the box that held the Poet’s bones, as well as the projects awarded in the competition organized by the Ministry of Public Education in 1921 for the decoration of the interior of the adjacent Basilica of San Francesco.

12 National Museum of Ravenna

The National Museum of Ravenna, established in 1885, has been housed since the early twentieth century in the prestigious premises of the former Benedictine monastery of San Vitale. The original core of the museum heritage consists of the collections formed during the 18th century by the Camaldolese monks of Classe then enriched through donations, acquisitions, findings, and excavations. Currently, the museum presents itself as a set of heterogeneous collections, attributable to three main groups: lapidary, excavation finds, and art collections. The lapidary, mostly exhibited along the two cloisters of the monastery, consists of an interesting collection of epitaphs and funerary stelae and stone artifacts from the Roman, early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. On the upper floors are mosaics and archaeological materials, particularly coming from the territory of Classe, and the so-called minor art collections. The collections include bronzes and plaques, ivories, icons, weapons and armor, ceramics. Furthermore, the museum houses the important cycle of 14th-century frescoes detached from the ancient church of Santa Chiara in Ravenna by Pietro da Rimini.

13 National Museum of Underwater Activities

The National Museum of Underwater Activities was inaugurated in Marina di Ravenna by “The Historical Diving Society, Italy,” in some premises provided by the Municipal Administration. Its purpose is to promote the study of the history of underwater activities also through the realization of temporary exhibitions, organization of conferences, and publication of educational materials. The various sections contain prints from the 1700s and 1800s, dioramas, one of the first Italian decompression chambers, diver and scuba gear, work materials, and underwater photography instruments. One area is dedicated to the military navy and the underwater assault vehicle of the last world war, known as “pig.” It also preserves the original plaster of the statue submerged in the waters of S. Fruttuoso in Liguria, depicting the Christ of the Abyss, a work by the sculptor Guido Galletti.

Other recommended museums in Ravenna

• Ancient Port of Classe, Ravenna
• Classense Library, Ravenna
• House of the Stone Carpets, Ravenna
• The Puppet House, Ravenna
• Archiepiscopal Museum of Ravenna
• City Art Museum, Ravenna
• Museum of the Risorgimento, Ravenna
• Educational Museum of the Territory, Ravenna
• Ravenna Natural Sciences Museum “Alfredo Brandolini”, Ravenna
• Small Doll and Toy Museum, Ravenna
• The Ravenna Planetarium
• Dante Alighieri Theater, Ravenna
• Luigi Rasi Theater, Ravenna