Ravenna - Mausoleo di Teodorico

The Mausoleo di Teodorico ("Mausoleum of Theoderich") was erected in 520 as the future tomb of Theodorich the Great. At that time it was outside the city and surrounded by a Gothic graveyard.

The structure of the mausoleum is divided into two decagons, one above the other. Both are made of stones from Istria (today part of Croatia). Its roof is a single 300–ton Istrian stone, 10 meters in diameter!

The lower room was probably a chapel for funeral liturgies. In the room above is the porphyry stone tomb, seen here. In this tomb Theoderich was buried, after he had died in 526.

When Byzantine Emperor Justinian's general Belisarius had taken Ravenna in 540, Theoderich´s bones were scattered and his mausoleum was converted to a Christian oratory.

Like many structures of that age in Ravenna, the mausoleum was built on soft ground. Finally silting from the river Badareno had partly submerged it. So in the late 19th century the area around was drained, the mausoleum got excavated and restored.

Theoderich was remembered in Germanic legend as "Dietrich von Bern". Bern is the Middle High German name for Verona.

On the tomb are many small graffiti, maybe dating from the time of Belisarius.