Ravenna, a Byzantine summer dream
Today i am traveling all alone and, in order to fight loneliness, i want to share with you a wonderful journey through the narrow streets of Ravenna, the city that stands on the Adriatic Sea like a young woman fallen asleep nearby a calm, placid river.
Ravenna, the mosaic city, has a host of architectural masterpieces and mosaic art dating from the times of Galla Placidia, Theodoric and Justinian (c. 400 - 550). The Byzantium of the West has retained its unique appeal in its treasure of early-Christian basilicas, its baptisteries, its cylindrical 10th and 11th century bell towers, its Romanesque churches with examples of Renaissance architecture left by the Venetians and its 17th and 18th century buildings.
The city has a surprising vitality which would make it interesting even if it did not have a great, albeit distant, past; even if it had not preserved the monuments that have made it famous over the worl, eight of which have been designated Unesco World Heritage Sites; even if it were not situated in the great basin of Romagna’s Riviera..
However the discerning tourist will soon discover that the city has many surprises in store and that, behind its mask of Art and History, there is much more to see beyond the great early Christian and Byzantine remains. Here, the impetuous wind of modernization, which has destroyed much and which has brought much that is new, has spared the soul of the historic city. Not only the soul jealously preserved inside the basilicas ans baptisteries, protected and exalted, strangely, by their ancient, rough brick walls; not only its nocturnal soul, which is to be found in the most secluded corners of the city (i.e. Gella Placidia, the area associated with Dante). But also the more familiar soul, which is to be found all over the historic center. The old and the new live side by side, forming an unusual symbiosis, creating an athmosphere which is not only fascinating but difficult to put in words.
The environmental framework of Ravenna has changed as well as its structure, form and size. It is no longer ringed by water and marshes (except partialyy to the northeast, on the lagoon side, between pine grove and sea) nor by the network of rivers that still used to surround - and cross - it in the final centuries of the Roman Empire. Not even the great Augustan port still exists. For years now an extensive and growing archaeological park has taken its place. Yet, in recent decades, Ravenna has rediscovered its sea, on which for centuries it had turned its back in favour of a fertile hinterland. It has a great port once more, a commercial and industrial one this time.
Despite all this, the ancient capital remains the city of the mosaics.
Since this is not a lonely planet guide i would suggest you only some cool places to pay a visit to, the rest of the stuff you will have to find by yourself, mixing curiosity and exploring inclination.
Ok, ready? First of all go to Piazza del Popolo, one of the loveliest squares in the upper Adriatic. You will see some venetian buldings, witness of their rule over the city in the past centuries.
Then you can’t miss Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo, perhaps the most important monument of the Imperial and early Christian Roman world of Ravenna. Here you will see two impressive walls covered by mosaics (unique in the art of antiquity) representing both the Catholic faith and the strongest Heresy in the Imperial Church.
Finally take a walk to Mausoleum of Theodoric, an Ostrogoth monument dedicated to the great Emperor. Note that the mausoluem is the only religious building in Ravenna built entirely in stone and it’s the only monument without mosaics in Ravenna declared a world heritage by Unesco.
The last thing to do in Ravenna? Pay a visit to Dante’s Tomb of course. Dante is the father of human literature and greatest poet of all times, so why not greeting him before leaving this astonishing city?
Bye Ravenna, you are in my heart.
[techtags: Ravenna, mosaics, art, roman empire, Dante, Theodoric, Mausoleum, church, unesco, romagna, adriatic sea, italy, italian art city, byzantine, medieval]
