Ravenna

Italy blog #4- click the photos to enlarge them

Venice might be known for its glass, but Ravenna is known for its mosaics. So well known, that even a cathedral in Aachen takes ideas and mosaics from Ravenna. While I had done research prior to going, enough to know about getting a museum pass, I somehow forgot to print out a map. Luckily there was one outside the train station and we were quickly able to start moving about the central part of the city. This will probably be one of the shortest blogs, but not because the city wasn't interesting, I just don't have as many historical details to add this time.

We started our 'mosaic tour' off by going to the Basilica di San Vitale. It has one of the important examples of Christian Byzantine art and architecture in western Europe and it is one of 8 of UNESCO protected sites Ravenna has. This is also one of the churches that most art history classes touch upon at one point or another. The structure of the church has an octagon shape and was begun in the year 526. The central ceiling is painted in an ornate fashion, the mosaics are in the front, and are highly lit by sunlight. The rest of the church tends to be quite dark. The floor also has a tile pattern that changes, which is also a nice touch. The mosaics are by far the most brilliant that I've ever seen. The colors are bright, and the imagery clear. The fact that the building is still standing is incredible, and of great value to the world.

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

San Vitale

Just meters away from the Basilica is the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, which is a Roman building with 3 sarcophagi in it. The ceiling is also coated with mosaics, and each tile was perfectly added. The area not coated with mosaics is covered in marble.

Mausoleo

Look at the doves below the window and compare to the picture directly below

Compare the doves below the window to the picture above

Outside the Mausoleo

Ravenna

Ravenna

Ravenna

Next up on our list was Battistero Degli Ortodossi (or Neoniano), this is the oldest monument in Ravenna, built on Roman baths. UNESCO does a better job explaining the mosaics than I can: 'The large mosaic medallion at the apex of the dome shows the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist. This is the finest and most complete surviving example of the early Christian baptistry.'

Neoniano

The baptistry

Right next door to the Baptistry was the Cappella di San Andrea which was contained within the Museum Arcivescovile. According to UNESCO this chapel was " the private oratory of the orthodox bishops, was built around 500. The chapel is in the shape of a Greek cross with an apse on the eastern arm; it is covered by a cross-vault and preceded by a rectangular vestibule. The Iower part of the walls is covered with marble, with mosaics above." Pictures were not allowed in the museum, but it had some interesting pieces in it. We wandered around afterwards to try to go to the tomb of Dante, but it was closed. They did have a small exhibit with a modern mosaic artist which was fun to see.
From there, I was starting to get hungry, a granola bar for breakfast was not sufficient to keep me full. We stopped in a quick shop that looked like university students ate at and got ragu with tagliatelle pasta. That lasted all of 10 minutes, so we continued to wander to another UNESCO site, Basilica Di Sant Apollinare Nuovo. This church was large, like a big hall, with the sides of it lined with mosaics. "Inside the interior is divided by 24 marble columns into a nave and two aisles, with a rounded apse. At the present time mosaics cover the two side walls at the foot of the nave, from the ceiling to the tops of the supporting arches, in three decorated fascias. Those in the upper two fascias are in traditional Roman style whereas those in the third show strong Byzantine influence (UNESCO)." One side depict Jesus' miracles and his parables and the other side the Passion and the Resurrection. There is a much deeper story to the mosaics on this one, and if you're interested, look it up further. The mosaics primarily depicted people, and each one had a slight difference, and it was cool to try to find the differences between each one. Afterwards, we walked to the city gate, and through the city park.

Basilica Di Sant' Apollinare Nuovo

To give you perspective of how tall and big this church is

Separate church- Basilica Santuario Santa Maria

A city gate

Our last mosaic visit/UNESCO site was to the Battistero Degli Ariani, also built in the 5th to 6th century. The mosaics inside depict the baptism of Jesus. Only the dome retains its mosaic decoration. 'The iconography of the mosaics is of importance in that it illustrates the Trinity, a somewhat unexpected element in the art of an Arian building as the Trinity was not accepted in this doctrine' (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/788). The original floor is over 2 meters down from the current ground level.

We saw 6 of 8 UNESCO sites in total. The other two were out of our walking range for the day. We then decided to do a little shopping since we wouldn't have to carry it long, so we went into a WJcon for makeup (yes, even more, and I even got some). Yves Rocher, and a gelateria. Brie got a Bacio flavored gelato and I got a piece of chocolate with pistachio in it. We also stopped into Douglas to see what they had too. As dusk started to fall we went back to the train station and had some McDonald's fries while we waited for the train. When we got back to Bologna, we hit up Trattoria Al Mela, where I had a artichoke pizza and Brie had a four cheese pizza with the house red wine. Nothing to die for, but good none the less.

That's it for Ravenna, tomorrow I will probably post about Parma.

Tip:

• If you go to Ravenna, get the 5 museum pass, it hits the big mosaic spots (not all of course) and is a really good value (I think it was only 9.50 Euro).
• Ravenna is a good spot if you want to see some awesome mosaics, and to put some of that hard learned art history to good use.