Cryptic Ravenna

Ravenna may not be associated with Dante the way Florence is, but it is the proud owner of his bones. The "tomb" in the church of Santa Croce in Florence is really just a memorial. Dante died in Ravenna, where he was living in exile, and was buried there. The Florentines have wanted him back for a long time - in 1519, Pope Leo X even ordered his removal to Florence, but the monks of Ravenna refused and hid his bones for centuries. They were found in 1865, and his current tomb is small a modern (19th century) structure in an unassuming part of Ravenna.

Dante on his bike

Like a kid in a sweet shop

Just next to Dante's tomb is the Basilica di San Francisco, one of my favourite of the many fantastic spots in Ravenna. The Basilica is pretty unremarkable except for its flooded crypt, which dates to the 10th century but over the years has sunk into its soft marshy foundations and flooded. They gave up the fight to keep the water out, and today it is an attraction in its own right. You have to peep through a small window - pay the small fee to turn the lights on. It is home to goldfish and lucky coins, and when we visited also featured an underwater table with stone tablecloth and goldfish bowl. This latter doesn't appear in photos I see online, so is presumably a temporary installation highlighting the gentle absurdity of the place.

Grave of the charmingly-named ruler Ostasio da Polenta (d. 1346)

All this and we still didn't see absolutely everything Ravenna has to offer! Very much recommended.

House of the Stone Carpets, Ravenna

The core set of elaborately glittering golden mosaics in Ravenna are indubitably the most famous, but they are not the only show in town. We also visited the so-called "Stone Carpets", a set of Roman/Byzantine mosaics with a backstory almost as fabulous as the mosaics themselves.

You reach the House of the Stone Carpets via the next-door church of Saint Eufemia. There, you pass underground, three metres below current ground level, to an excavated Byzantine palace which was only discovered in 1993 during the (attempted) construction of an underground garage. Covering around 1200 sq metres, the 14 rooms and three courtyards of the small palace are covered with intricately patterned "carpets" in stone, as well as a couple of stand-out figurative mosaics. The mosaics were restored and the returned to their original location, albeit now in a modern excavation space that allows visitors to walk "through" the house on raised platforms. It only opened to the public in 2002.

It was peaceful and not crowded when we visited (luckily, otherwise it might be unpleasant to have to queue along the platforms), probably because it is less known, less flashy than the main sites, and not included in the combination ticket to the religious buildings. It's a nice chance to see a secular building with a more intimate and low-key mosaic decoration.

The dance of the seasons

Lighting didn't quite work out for a photo with the dancing mosaic

Christ as the Good Shepherd. This is apparently quite different from the standard representation, although none of the sites I've consulted say how exactly. I would guess his very youthful, countrified appearance

Archbishop's Palace, Ravenna

Our last stop on the mosaic trail was at the Archbishop's Palace, now a museum, which contains a tiny oratory dedicated to St Andrew from around 495 AD. Photos were not allowed in here, so I took a couple anyway (sorry).

A militant Christ trampling the beasts

The rest of the museum contains a bit of a hodgepodge of various paintings, mosaic fragments, ivories, statues etc. To be honest, I didn't find it all that memorable, but I enjoyed looking back through my photos and remembering what there was to see there. 

One highlight is the reconstructed chapel frescoes by da Rimini, from the church of Santa Chiara (early 14th century)

The lighting and damage made them hard to photograph, but they had a delicate beauty

As usual, I also enjoyed taking photos of various quirky objects:

Sexy boar

Sexy mermaid (hello Starbucks)

'Tis but a scratch

Pharmacy reconstruction

Wolf infestation

I didn't take any pictures of one of the glories of the museum, the ivory throne of Archbishop Maximianus (who showed up in the San Vitale mosaics), and the internet doesn't seem to have many pictures of it either, but it's pretty special:

Source

Classey lady

Our first stop to the fabulous ensemble of (mostly) early Christian sites that are the highlights of Ravenna was just outside Ravenna itself, at the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. The Basilica was consecrated in 549, and originally held the relics of Saint Apollinaris, the first Bishop (his remains were later moved to the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna proper). Much of the walls are now bare, as the mosaics were probably removed by the Venetians in the 15th century, but high on the walls and ceiling, some mosaics from the 6th and 7th centuries still remain.

The apse mosaic features a cross with Christ's head in the centre flanked by Moses and Elijah. The lambs in the middle represent the apostles Peter, James and John

Below the cross stands St Apollinaris with his "flock" of the faithful

The nave contains two dozen marble pillars with carved capitals

The side aisles contain a number of early Christian sarcophagi, and there are also some ancient tombstones reused as construction materials for the church

From the original Sant'Apollinare, we pass to Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, which is not really newer. It was first constructed in 504 by the Ostrogoth King Theodoric as an Arian chapel (more on all that later), then became Saint Martin's in honour of St Martin of Tours (yay, Tours) who fought against Arianism (that's adding insult to injury). Finally, it was rebaptised as Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in 856 when the saint's relics were moved there from Classe due to the threats posed by pirate raids. Quite the exciting history. 

If I was impressed by the Classe version (and I was) I was even more blown away by the Nuovo and Improuovo one. 

Look at that sky, sigh! 

The original mosaics included several which depicted Theodoric and his court or Arian themes. Many of these were destroyed or altered to more conventional Byzantine Christian themes when the church was resanctified, leaving the odd hand or foot floating out there by itself.

The left wall features a procession of virgins, led by the Three Magi,  from the city of Classe to the throne of the Virgin and Child

Mosaic of the port of Classe (it seems pretty far from the sea now, but apparently not always). You can see by the different coloured "bricks" where elements of the original Arian mosaic was covered up

The Three Magi

The Virgin and Child

Up the very top of the right-hand wall are small scenes of the Passion of Christ, including Judas' kiss (far right) and the Last Supper (second from left), with various saints and prophets below

On the right-hand wall, a procession of male martyrs go from the city of Ravenna to the enthroned Chris

The building on the right shows the Palace of Theodoric. Portraits of his court were originally in the spaces now filled by mosaic curtains