Ravenna

Eight of its monuments have been declared by UNESCO a 'world heritage site' for the supreme artistic mastery of the mosaic art. San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and in Classe, the Baptistery of the Arians, the Archiepiscopal Chapel and the Mausoleum of Theodoric constitute a heritage of 1500 years of history.

Ravenna is one of the most unique, historically and artistically most important cities in Italy. Universal city, already recommended by Augustus who established the seat of the Roman fleet of the Eastern Mediterranean in Classe; grown following considerable importance; which became the last extreme bulwark of the empire, capital of the barbarian kingdoms, of the Byzantine exarchate, of the medieval Italic kingdom

Sacred city in Dante to the whole world, Ravenna flaunts, in harmonious groups or in superb solitudes, monuments of extraordinary importance and suggestioneresti belong to three great historical periods: the imperial with Honorius and Galla Placidia (5th century); the Gothic with Theodoric (late 5th, early 6th century) and the Byzantine with Justinian after 540.

About two centuries of artistic and building activity transform the small Roman city, built on the dunes between the sea and the swamp, into a splendid location not only for Emperors, Kings, and Exarchs, but also for an illustrious church, among the oldest, founded and glorified by the martyrdom of S. Apollinare, by the eloquence of S. Pier Crisologo, by the activity of other distinguished archbishops, who have united their name with a group of sacred monuments which together with those of Rome are the most representative of the Paleo-Christian art: the basilicas - among which S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe stand out - and baptisteries and mausoleums.

Ravenna also has a wealth of rare works of sculpture, as evidenced by the numerous typical sarcophagi that go from the 4th to the 9th century. from the most vital and correct forms to the most grotesque obscurations.