Beautiful, cultured and elegant, city of saints, bankers and kings, this fascinating city a few kilometers from the sea, boasts eight monuments declared by UNESCO World Heritage Site including the Basilica of San Vitale, a masterpiece of Byzantine art of the sixth century.
His early Christian masterpieces contain beautiful mosaics, particularly in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. But this also applies to the Mausoleum of Theodoric and the Neonian Baptistery, known as the Orthodox Baptistery, which has a magnificent dome of polychrome mosaics on a par with the Baptistery of the Aryans.
Even the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, erected for the Aryan cult, and only later consecrated to Catholicism, has the walls of the nave entirely covered with mosaics, but it stands out even more for its 16th century portico and the rare 9th century cylindrical bell tower. Beautiful mosaics also adorn the apse and the Archiepiscopal Chapel of the famous Basilica of San Vitale while the patron saint of the city represented in the middle of a rural mosaic landscape is glorified in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe.
It is precisely these valuable and unique mosaic decorations, the common element that has given Ravenna the title of “city of mosaics”.