Ravenna - Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe

In Roman times Ravenna was a lagoon city surrounded by water, with at times up to 50.000 inhabitants. The second largest naval base of the Roman Empire was located here.

In the late 5th century, Roman authority in the West dissolved, and Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the general Odoacer in 476. Odoacer ruled as king of Italy for 13 years, but in 489 the eastern emperor Zeno sent the Ostrogoth king Theoderic to reconquer Italy. After losing the Battle of Verona, Odoacer retreated to Ravenna, where he withstood a three-year siege. In 493, Theoderic finally took Ravenna and supposedly killed Odoacer with his own hands. Ravenna became the capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy.
Theodoric died in 526 and various Ostrogothic military leaders took the Kingdom of Italy, but none was really successful. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I opposed both Ostrogoth rule. In 535 his general Belisarius invaded Italy and in 540 conquered Ravenna. After the conquest of Italy was completed in 554, Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine government in Italy. Under Byzantine rule, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Ravenna held second place in Italy after the pope and played an important role during this period.

In 751 Lombard king, Aistulf conquered Ravenna, thus ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. King Pepin of the Franks attacked the Lombards and Ravenna gradually came under the direct authority of the Popes. Pope Adrian I authorized Charlemagne to take away anything from Ravenna that he liked, and Roman columns, mosaics, statues, and other portable items were taken north to enrich his capital of Aachen.

In 1198 Ravenna led a league of Romagna cities against the Emperor. After the war of 1218, the Traversari family was able to impose its rule in the city, but after a short period, Ravenna was returned to the Papal States in 1248 and again to the Traversari until 1275. One of the most illustrious residents of Ravenna at this time was the exiled Florentine poet Dante. In 1441 the city was annexed to the Venetian territories.

The construction of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe began under Bishop Ursicinus (officiating 533-536) and was consecrated by Bishop Maximian in 549.
It is (like seven more churches in Ravenna) part of 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".

The name in Classe comes from the ancient Roman city of Civitas Classis at the then (later silted up) port of Ravenna.

The interior (55.58 × 30.30 m) consists of three naves separated by two rows of twelve columns each made of Greek marble with Byzantine capitals. The elongated church is not vaulted - as was common in late antiquity - but covered with wooden trusses; the original coffered ceiling is no longer preserved. Only remains of the formerly mosaic-decorated floor have survived.

One of the Byzantine capitals

Find more photos from Ravenna in this album
www.ipernity.com/doc/323415/album/1330038