Ravenna

 

St. Lawrence in the Mausoleum

In 402 AD, Ravenna was the capital of the Roman empire, it remained the capital through the 8^th century. At the time Ravenna was like Venice, islands in a lagoon. (Today, it is landlocked.) The barbarians were invading, but Ravenna was protected since they couldn’t sail ships. We started at the Mausoleum di Galla Placidia, built in the built between 425 and 450 AD.   It is covered with mosaics, glass mixed with different minerals, depicting St. Lawrence running to the flames, Christ triumphant as a Shepard.

Abraham and Isaac in the Basilica

Across the courtyard is the Basilica di San Vitale from the 6^th century. The marble floor was preserved under swamp water under a temporary floor until pumps could drain the water in the 19^th century. The mosaics depict Old Testament scenes with green pastoral backgrounds and have early attempts at perspective. Other mosaics use a Byzantine style and a gold background to depict the Emperor.  The dome has 18th-century frescoes.

The town hall has two columns with what was a Venetian Lion on one. For 350 years, Ravenna was part of the Vatican State, the Lion was replaced with a Saint. We finished at the tomb of Dante, the father of the Italian language, buried here because he was exiled from Florence. The crypt of the church of St. Francis is flooded the mosaics can be seen below the surface (and goldfish).

Pascal Calendar

I finished the morning by visiting the Archeological museum. Most of the museum was medieval stonework from the cathedral. A unique item was a Pascal calendar which calculated when Easter occurred between 533 and 626 AD. We had lunch at a restaurant in town that was a converted movie theatre with frescoes on the wall and the stage/screen in front. The specialty was a pasta with meat sauce (ragu) and we learned that in Italy spaghetti is never served with ragu sauce.

Ragu Pasta