![]() Geometric Mosaics of Basilica of San Vitale Interestingly, the basilica was built around the same time as the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which was originally a Byzantine church, before being converted into a mosque in 1453.Īt the Basilica of San Vital, there is no time limit to your visit but again, the lighting isn’t great, and the crowds make photography tricky. Construction started in 526 by the Goths on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Vitalis but it was the Bynzatines that finished it in 548, having taken Ravenna some eight years earlier. Just a short stroll away across a courtyard, the Basilica of San Vitale is home to some of the finest of the Byzantine mosaics and its understandably one of the most popular of Ravenna’s UNESCO sites. Here you can see how one of the patterns found in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia can be drawn. The lighting made them difficult to photograph and my images do not do them justice.Ībove: A panel showing Christ as the Good Shepherd tending his flock.īelow: One fo the alabaster windows in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidiaīelow: samples of the small pieces of coloured glass used to make Ravenna’s mosaics Now they are lit by electric lights as well as by daylight coming through a few alabaster windows. The lower portion of the walls is marble, while the upper portion and all the ceiling is covered in the most beautiful mosaics I have ever seen.įlickering lanterns would once have made the gold in the Byzantine mosaics twinkle. To enable as many people as possible to see the small interior, each visitor is only allowed 5 minutes inside. The iconography used represents the victory of eternal life over death. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light and I caught my breath at the sight of the lavishly decorated interior made of thousands of pieces of coloured glass. Having waited briefly outside in a small queue, I passed through the doorway. It is one of the earliest of Ravenna’s monuments built in the 5th century AD by Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius (although it is believed she is buried in Rome rather than in this mausoleum).Īs was the tradition, the exterior is rather plain and gave no clue to the wonders inside. When we arrived in Ravenna we headed straight to our first stop, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. Ravenna may not be as well known as the likes of Venice, Florence or Rome but it is well worth visiting for its stunning 5th and 6th-century early Christian mosaics built first by the Romans, followed by the Ostrogoths, and then the Byzantines. The Byzantine Empire’s control of Ravenna ended in 751 when the city was conquered by the Lombards (although the empire itself lasted until Constantinople was taken by Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1453). However, in 540, when the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, the greatest Byzantine ruler, came to power, he defeated the Ostrogoths and made Ravenna the western capital of his empire, the “Constantinople of the West.” Their most notable king, Theodoric the Great (454–526) built some of Ravenna’s most impressive monuments including the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the Palace of Theoderic, and the Mausoleum of Theodoric. Meanwhile, Ravenna was now under the rule of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the eastern branch of the Goths, a Christian Germanic tribe. In the east, however, the empire continued to exist with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its eastern capital. The Roman Empire fell, in the west at least, when the last emperor Romulus August was deposed in 476. In 402, the Roman Emperor Honorius moved the capital from Rome to Ravenna marking the start of Ravenna’s heyday and the building of some extraordinary monuments. However, by the 5th century AD, its borders were under constant attack. ![]() The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC and flourished for several centuries. It fell under Roman control in 191 BC and became the base of the Roman Republic’s naval fleet. Map of the Ravenna Mosaics UNESCO World Heritage SitesĪlthough the origins of Ravenna are a little unclear, it is believed to have been inhabited as far back as 1400 BC.Basilica di San Francesco and the Tomb of Dante.Further UNESCO World Heritage Sites in and around Ravenna. ![]()
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