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Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe

549 establishments6th-century churchesBasilica churches in RavennaByzantine artEarly Christian art
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The Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe ("Saint Apollinaris in Classe") is a church in Classe, Ravenna, Italy, consecrated on 9 May 549 by the bishop Maximian and dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, the first bishop of Ravenna and Classe. An important monument of Byzantine art, in 1996 it was inscribed with seven other nearby monuments in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which described it as "an outstanding example of the early Christian basilica in its purity and simplicity of its design and use of space and in the sumptuous nature of its decoration".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Via Romea Sud, Ravenna

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N 44.3802738 ° E 12.2330015 °
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Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe

Via Romea Sud 224
48125 Ravenna
Emilia-Romagna, Italy
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polomusealeemiliaromagna.beniculturali.it

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Palace of Theodoric
Palace of Theodoric

The palace of Theodoric was a structure in Ravenna, Italy, that was the residence of the Ostrogothic ruler and king of Italy Theodoric the Great (d. 526), who was buried in the nearby Mausoleum of Theodoric. Both the location of the former palace and a large part of the ground plan can be gathered from excavations of the remains of foundations and walls carried out by Corrado Ricci in the period between 1907 and 1911 in the garden of the Monghini family and in the adjacent area between the Viale Farini und Via Alberoni. Ricci identified the building on the basis of lead sewer pipes on which the name of Theodoric was engraved. The palace lay behind San Apollinare Nuovo, Theodoric's cathedral church, and the partial building which is now referred to as the "so-called Palace of Theodoric", which was erroneously believed to be a remnant of the palace for a long time. The lead pipes revealed by the excavation, along with other finds, are kept in a dedicated room of the National Museum, Ravenna. A large-scale mosaic depiction of the palace, located on the upper part of the southern interior wall of San Apollinare Nuovo and dating from the time of Theodoric, allows the palace to be reconstructed to a certain extent. From that, the palace seems not to have been very large. The relevant mosaic in San Apollinare Nuovo, which probably originally depicted Theodoric sitting on a horse in the centre and members of his court or his family in the two flanking colonnades, was altered after Theodoric's death in 526. Because he was an Arian, the Roman Church considered him a heretic. After his death, therefore, all images that depicted him and other people were removed from the mosaic and covered with other images. Of the original figures, the hands still remain on the columns of the palace. In the excavations, among other things, some remnants of the palace's mosaic floor were discovered. The mosaics were brought to the "so-called Palace of Theodoric" in 1923, where they were set up in a display room. In the display room, on the upper level, a poster with a plan of the excavated foundations was displayed as well. Building material was taken from the ruins of Theodoric's palace by Charlemagne, including several columns that he reused in the construction of his Palatine Chapel in Aachen. The columns, which served mostly as decoration and had no structural role, were removed by Napoleon and displayed in the Louvre. Some of the columns were later returned to Aachen.

Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo
Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

The Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo is a basilica church in Ravenna, Italy. It was erected by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as his palace chapel during the first quarter of the 6th century (as attested to in the Liber Pontificalis). This Arian church was originally dedicated in 504 AD to "Christ the Redeemer".It was reconsecrated in 561 AD, under the rule of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, under the new name "Sanctus Martinus in Coelo Aureo" ("Saint Martin in Golden Heaven"). Suppressing the Arian church, the church was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, a foe of Arianism. According to legend, Pope Gregory the Great ordered that the mosaics in the church be blackened, as their golden glory distracted worshipers from their prayers. The basilica was renamed again in 856 AD when relics of Saint Apollinaris were transferred from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe because of the threat posed by frequent raids of pirates from the Adriatic Sea. Its apse and atrium underwent modernization at various times, beginning in the 6th century with the destruction of mosaics whose themes were too overtly Arian or which expressed the king's glory, but the mosaics of the lateral walls, twenty-four columns with simplified Corinthian capitals, and an Ambo are preserved. On some columns, images of arms and hands can be seen, which are parts of figures once representing praying Goths and Theodoric's court, deleted in Byzantine times. Renovations (and alterations) were done to the mosaics in the mid-19th century by Felice Kibel. The present apse is a reconstruction after being damaged during World War II.

Ravenna
Ravenna

Ravenna ( rə-VEN-ə, Italian: [raˈvenna], also local pronunciation: [raˈvɛnna] ; Romagnol: Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its collapse in 476, after which it served as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom and then the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna.Initially settled by the Umbri people, Ravenna came under Roman Republic control in 89 BC. Octavian built the military harbor of Classis at Ravenna, and the city remained an important seaport on the Adriatic until the early Middle Ages. The city prospered under imperial rule. In 402, Western Roman emperor Honorius moved his court from Mediolanum to Ravenna; it then served as capital of the empire for most of the 5th century. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ravenna became the capital of Odoacer until he was defeated by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. In 540 Belisarius conquered Ravenna for the Byzantine Empire, and the city became the capital of Byzantine Italy. After brief Lombard control, Ravenna came under the authority of the Papacy and, save for minor interruptions, remained part of the Papal States until the mid-19th century when it was incoporated into the new unified Kingdom of Italy.Although it is an inland city, Ravenna is connected to the Adriatic Sea by the Candiano Canal. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture, with eight buildings comprising the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna". Because of the high concentration of mosaics, the city has been associated with workshops and schools teaching mosaics, and is often given titles like the "capital of mosaics".

Basilica of San Francesco, Ravenna
Basilica of San Francesco, Ravenna

The Basilica of San Francesco is a major church in Ravenna. It was first built in 450 by Neo, bishop of Ravenna, and dedicated to saint Peter and Saint Paul. It was later also known as the Church of the Apostles (Chiesa degli Apostoli). In the second half of the 9th century and over the course of the 10th century, the earlier church was demolished to build a larger one and a tall bell tower, both of which survive. This new church was dedicated to Saint Peter and named San Pietro Maggiore. It was handed over to the Franciscans in 1261 and rededicated to Francis of Assisi.Dante Alighieri's funeral was held in the church in 1321 and his remains still rest next to the church in the Tomb of Dante. Between 1500 and 1700 the church was restored again and again and Baroque altars and decorations were added. The most important restoration was that under Pietro Zumaglini in 1793. Ravenna was occupied by the French soon afterwards and in 1810 the monastery was suppressed, with its buildings confiscated by the authorities but the church kept open as a parish church, which it still is. Between 1918 and 1921, in preparation for the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, the church was radically restored, removing all the Baroque additions and returning it to something like its original style. A competition was held during the anniversary for a new scheme inside the church based on Dante's best known work, the Divine Comedy. Adolfo De Carolis won the competition but his sudden death prevented his scheme from being realised. The crypt was restored between 1926 and 1970 and in 1949 the Franciscans took on the church once again. Instead of the old monastery buildings, they moved into a building opposite the church and continued to run it as a parish church.