Ravenna is one of the most historically condensed cities in Italy, a claim that requires unpacking given that Italy is a country where the historical density reaches levels incomprehensible elsewhere. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 AD (when Honorius moved the court from Milan for defensive reasons, the Adriatic marshes providing protection that Milan's position could not). It was the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Theoderic the Great (493-540 AD), the finest Germanic ruler of late antiquity. It was the Byzantine Exarchate capital (540-751 AD), the administrative center of Byzantine Italy. And it is the city where Dante Alighieri, exiled from Florence by his political enemies, spent the last years of his life and died in 1321, and where he is buried in a small neoclassical tomb that Florence has been trying to recover for seven centuries without success. The mosaics, which are genuinely the finest in the Western world, are the surface of a city with more historical layers than almost anywhere else in Europe.
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Ravenna Beyond the UNESCO Sites
Dante's Tomb
The Tomba di Dante is in a small neoclassical building (1780, designed by Camillo Morigia) adjacent to the church of San Francesco, in the center of Ravenna. Dante died in Ravenna in September 1321, returning from a diplomatic mission to Venice. He was buried with honors by the ruling Da Polenta family. Florence has requested the return of Dante's remains many times over seven centuries, the Florentine municipality built a tomb for Dante in Santa Croce in 1829 that remains empty. Ravenna has consistently refused, and a Franciscan tradition of maintaining a perpetual oil lamp in the tomb (using oil sent annually by the Florentine municipality as a symbolic penance for the exile) has continued since 1908. The tomb itself is modest. The symbolic weight is extraordinary.
Ravenna: tours & tickets
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The remains of Theoderic's palace (the early sixth-century Ostrogothic administrative and residential complex) are partially visible in Piazza del Popolo and accessible at the Palazzo di Teodorico museum site on Via di Roma. Theoderic's legacy in Ravenna is architectural and political: the mosaics of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo were originally Arian Christian (the Arian christology that denied Christ's co-equality with God, the belief of the Goths) and were modified after Byzantine reconquest to remove the most explicitly Arian imagery, the procession of saints that replaced the original Arian figures is one of the most interesting examples of religious iconography being repurposed for political control.
The Venetian Port Canal
The Canale Corsini connects central Ravenna to the Adriatic, 10 km east, a Venetian-era engineering project (eighteenth century) that gave the Venetian Republic direct maritime access to its Ravenna holding. The canal, with its specific industrial architecture of warehouses and liftbridges, is the most overlooked element of Ravenna's physical fabric and the most photogenic. Walking the canal towpath from the city center toward the sea, approximately 5 km one way, produces a completely different Ravenna from the art tourism circuit.
Q&A: Ravenna
How long should I spend in Ravenna?
The UNESCO mosaic circuit alone (San Vitale, Galla Placidia, Battistero Neoniano, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Battistero degli Ariani, Cappella Arcivescovile) requires a full day if done properly. Adding Dante's tomb, the Palazzo di Teodorico, and the city center exploration makes this a comfortable two-day visit. Ravenna has excellent hotels (converted medieval palaces in the historic center) and restaurants that do justice to the Emilian food tradition. The combination of extraordinary art, historical depth, excellent food, and zero crowding compared to Rome or Florence makes Ravenna one of Italy's most rewarding two-day stays.
What Nobody Tells You About Ravenna
The best time to see the Galla Placidia mausoleum mosaics, the jewel-blue ceiling with gold stars, the finest small-scale mosaic environment in Italy, is at exactly 10am when the southern sun enters the small alabaster windows at the angle that saturates the mosaic with internal light. The Galla Placidia mausoleum is tiny (it can hold approximately 10 visitors at a time comfortably) and is on a timed entry system. Book the 10am slot specifically for the light condition. The mosaic by artificial light is beautiful. By the morning sun through alabaster it is transcendent.
Internal Links
- San Vitale: Justinian and Theodora in Mosaic
- Ravenna Mosaic Workshops: Making Your Own
- Ravenna Festival: Riccardo Muti in the Byzantine City
- Getting to Ravenna: Train from Bologna
- Ferrara-Ravenna Circuit: Two Days of Northern Adriatic
- Ravenna Food: The Emilian Tradition in Byzantine Capital
- What Came After Byzantine: Italian Art History