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Ravenna is on Italy's tourist map for one reason: its 1,500-year-old churches decorated with best-in-the-West Byzantine mosaics. While locals go about their business, busloads of tourists slip in and out of this town near the Adriatic coast to bask in the glittering glory of Byzantium, the eastern Roman Empire. Imagine…it's AD 540.
Sep 19, 2024 · Accessed 1 November 2024. Ravenna, city, Emilia-Romagna regione, northeastern Italy. The city is on a low-lying plain near the confluence of the Ronco and Montone rivers, 6 miles (10 km) inland from the Adriatic Sea, with which it is connected by a canal. Ravenna was important in history as the capital of the Western Roman.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Built between the 5 th and the 6 th century a.D., they testify a period of greatness, during which Ravenna — crossway between the East and the West — became three times capital. As soon as you visit the Unesco monuments, you will see the beauty that in a remote past inspired many poets and visitors. The sparkle of the golden mosaics and the ...
- The Stunning Byzantine Mosaics of Ravenna
- The Colours of Ravenna
- Dante’s Final Resting Place
- The Stone Pines
- Ravenna’s Mighty Defensive Wall and Gates
- The Fresco of Our Lady of The Tumours in The Santa Maria Maggiore Church
- The Towers of Ravenna
- The Sense of Community
- The Small Details
- The City of Modern Mosaics
Of course, you cannot talk about Ravenna without mentioning its Byzantine mosaics in the same breath. Hence, I am not going to dispense with tradition here. Especially as the main reason for my visit there was precisely to see them. Yes, they are absolutely stunning! Beautiful and breath-taking. Walking all over Ravenna’s historical centre and visi...
The bright yellows and the muted pinks of Ravenna really caught my attention. I love it how brave Italians are in terms of painting their houses and buildings in the most daring of colours. It really makes the architecture stand out under the blue sky, uplifting both the soul and the urban environment. Whereas British cities seem to be grey and ser...
Now, I have to be honest here and admit that until my visit to Ravenna, I actually didn’t know that Dante – the big Italian poet of the Divine Comedy’s fame – is actually buried there rather than in Florence. As it happens, Dante’s Mausoleum was the first major sight I came across in the city and I spent as long as I could there just taking it all ...
I am rapidly becoming obsessed with the weird and wonderful pine trees which grow here in Italy. They look nothing like the traditional coniferous trees we have and use, for example, for Christmas wreaths and decorations. Instead they have a very tall spindly trunk which is crowned by a mass of green branches widely stretching their limbs horizonta...
Rushing through the historical centre of Ravenna, I came upon Porta Adriana – a huge yellow structure on the Western side of the city’s partially preserved defensive wall. I walked through the gate, curious to see what’s on the other side. Well, nowadays obviously the city spills beyond the limits of its old nucleus, so I saw avenues and streets le...
For its plain baroque exterior you wouldn’t think that the Santa Maria Maggiore church in Ravenna would have much to offer to the regular tourist apart from a quick glance at its 9th-10th century circular tower. Especially as the church sits opposite the Basilica of San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia – both of which house some of the mo...
Unexpectedly for me, Ravenna turned out to possess some of the most impressive bell towers I have had the chance to see. They were either circular or square, jutting high up towards the sky and adorned with dozens of windows starting from the ground and leading up to the top. I loved seeing the tower of Ravenna’s Basilica (the Baptistery of Neon is...
I have to be honest here and tell you that when I first arrived at Ravenna train station, I had a moment of pure fright. The station looked quite dodgy with people loitering around with seemingly nothing to do. I wasn’t sure which way to go and there didn’t seem to be anyone around looking trustworthy enough for me to ask. Now, apologies for the st...
You know how it is. Often we go to a place seduced by the idea of seeing a particular main sight. Then we dedicate all our time to it and we never actually stop and admire anything else which may come along our way. Well, don’t let this happen with you and Ravenna for there are many other things to catch your eye and make you stop and think. Little...
15 centuries after the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna were placed on the walls of its baptisteries and churches, the city continues to be a world-renowned centre of the mosaic art. Modern mosaic studios can be glimpsed along the city streets. There is a School of the Mosaic Art. And while the excavations continue and discoveries of Byzantine mosaic f...
Ravenna was one of the most important cities of late antique Europe. Between 400 and 751 AD, it was the residence of western Roman emperors, Ostrogothic kings, and Byzantine governors of Italy, while its bishops and archbishops ranked second only to the popes. During this 350-year period, the city was progressively enlarged and enriched by ...
The military architecture and street plan were the first things to change. The city walls were reinforced, and in 1457 the new fortress was built: the Rocca di Brancaleone, which has the innovative floor plan typical of 16th-century fortifications. After that, in the centre of Ravenna, Piazza del Popolo was built.
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Ravenna hosts a Unesco site with eight World Heritage Monuments, built between the 5th and 5th century AD by unique artists and courageous architects. They are a vivid testimony of an illustrious period, when Ravenna was a capital for three times and a meeting point between East and West. As soon as you visit the eight Unesco World Heritage ...
