Ravenna: Sleeping Beauty
Now, when new restrictions are appearing and disappearing every day, I decided to share some of my trips impressions, in hope that tourism and adventures will return in our life. I’m not going to write about popular tourist attractions, but about some places, that are not so famous, but still can suggest a lot of interesting things. Our favorite way of travelling is by car, so I have to plan where to stay for night, and what to see during the day, and, as result, we see a lot of small places, and many of them have a lot of interest, staying in the shade of famous neighbors.
One of these small towns is Ravenna. Situated between overcrowded Venice and popular resort Rimini, it is a calm town with a few tourists, the town, where the Rome Empire history ended and middle ages started.
All the pictures in the article were made in August 2018, in the very peak of the season, but the town was sleeping in the afternoon sun and only stones kept the memory of its dramatic role in ancient history. And, this is not a guide-book, I’m just sharing my most striking impressions.
Passing through lines of central streets, formed by more or less modern architecture, from time to time broken by older buildings, we suddenly found ourselves in early middle ages. These were the San-Vitale Basilic and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, surrounded by remains of late Roman and gothic churches.
So called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is one of remarkable samples of late Roman architecture and art. It belongs to a shot period when Ravenna was Roman Imperator official residence, and is named after daughter of Emperor Theodosius I and sister of Emperor Honorius. Though it is believed that Galla Placidia died and was buried at Rome, the Mausoleum probably belonged to her family. From outside it looks like a small and modest brick building, but interiors are surprising. The walls, сeilings and dome are all decorated with mosaics, both ornaments and figures, and the ground, contrast to red brick of the exterior, is of deep navy blue. One can like or not the richness of decoration, but unexpected shade of blue can’t leave anybody indifferent, it’s really striking.
The Mausoleum forms one place of interest with the San-Vitale Basilic, it was built in 6-th century and combines Roman, Byzantine and early-middle ages styles. According to Byzantine tradition, the interior (including walls and floors) is richly decorated with mosaics, that later were combined with paintings.
To be frank, I’m not a fan of Byzantine mosaics, so if you are interested, you can find a lot of other sources, my greatest impression was not by San Vitale interior, but of its construction. It’s one of the earliest examples of construction with flying buttresses (also called arc-boutants), a type of construction that is usually discussed in the frames of Gothic style, that appeared much later, only in 12-th century. It’s quite common in Gothic cathedrals, but there are just a few examples in Roman or Romanesque architecture survived, and here we can see one of them.
Once you walk outside the old town walls and cross railway, you can find the famous Mausoleum of Theodoric, built by Ostrogothic czar Theodoric the Great in the beginning of VI century. Probably, it’s the most famous Ravenna monument, at least, I’ve seen it’s black-and-white pictures in my Art History textbook many years ago.
The most unusual detail of the Mausoleum is it’s dome, made from a single piece of stone. It’s believed that during the construction walls were covered with earth and the heavy dome was put on place by horses. We still can see staples that were used to pull the stone.
Walls had to be thick enough in order to keep the heavy dome (it’s weight is about 230 tons),
and windows are as small as possible, so it’s always dark inside.
Unfortunately, no interior decorations nor the Theodoric tomb are saved, but still the Mausoleum produce a strong impression, as if you can touch history by hand.
Among other early Middle ages architecture I liked most so called “Saint Apollinaris in Classe” Basilica, though it’s not in Ravenna itself, but very close to the town.
It looks simple and brutal from outside, keeping both Byzantine (as it was founded in VI century) and Romanesque styles elements, but the interior is suddenly full of light and decorated with mosaics, that has saved their original fresh colors. For me the most beautiful was the one depicting St. Apollinaris, the first Bishop of Ravenna, with sheep. It’s both naïve and elegant, and so fresh in colors.
As this is a personal review, I wouldn’t describe in details other monuments and places of interest — but, believe me, there are also perfect buildings belonging to Gothic and Renaissance epochs.
Dante Tomb is near basilica of San Francesco, where his funerals took place in 1321.
Among other interesting places — National Museum of Ravenna, it occupies ancient monastery building, that is worth visiting itself, and, of course, Ravenna Cathedral, that was founded in V century, the campanile was built later, in X century, and the cathedral itself was rebuilt in XVIII century in Baroque style, so now it’s a remarkable monument of all these styles.
Tips. In the end I’d like to share some tips for tourists.
Initially Ravenna was close to the sea, but now it’s 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) far from it. So, once you travel to Ravenna in summer, I’d like to advice to stay not in the town, but in the beach area. You can easily drive to the town, and there are also regular bus routes. Ravenna beaches are sandy, very similar to Rimini, but less crowded, in August there were no problems with free space and parking just two blocks from the beach.
Also, I’d strongly advice to rent an apartment with kitchen — there is a lot of bars, but most of them are just bars or cafés, where you can have a drink, or have some ice-cream or coffe-and-briosh, but not a good lunch. On the other hand, there are supermarkets and fish shops and bakeries, everything one can need to cook at home.
One more problem, related to absence of tourists — language. Of course, they speak English at the Information Center in the town (it’s near basilica of San Francesco), but it’s vise to learn at least minimum of Italian words — just to say “hello” and buy bus tickets and food products in small shops. People in the street often don’t speak English.
