Ravenna (December 5-8, 2019)
From December 5-8, the Ancient History travel group made its way to Ravenna in northern Italy to immerse itself in the city's late antique and early Christian history. On the one hand, the city is important for antiquity due to the establishment of a naval base in Classe in Augustan times. On the other hand, Honorius, the son of Theodosius I, moved his seat of power to Ravenna at the beginning of the 5th century due to strategic defense considerations and thus made the city the second imperial capital of Western Rome, whereby - according to our thesis established in the course of the excursion - Rome remained number 1, at least symbolically.
On the first day after our arrival, our program included the National Museum. In addition to an impressive relief, presumably from the time of Claudius, which was based on the model of the Ara Pacis, this offered us the opportunity to explore numerous gravestones of former members of the Ravenna fleet.
On St. Nicholas' Day, we started our exploration of the city with the so-called Palace of Theodoric, of which only the remains remain. We then went to the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, which was consecrated at the end of the 5th or perhaps the beginning of the 6th century. Here, the mosaic with a procession of male and female saints captivated us for two hours, as we were not satisfied until we had researched the life dates of all the martyrs depicted and condensed them into a meaningful thesis about the selection of the figures. We continued on to the Mausoleum of Theoderic, a huge building, the inspection of which in situ helped us to understand the location of the city in a marshy area and the raising of the ground level by over 3 meters caused by numerous floods over the centuries. The second day of our trip took us in the afternoon to the gates of Ravenna to Classe, where the ancient military port was located. We visited the Classis Museum, which attempts to shed light on the history of the region in order to create a sense of identity, and the Basilica of Sant'Appolinare in Classe, which was built and consecrated in the 6th century.
On day 3, the Italian sun greeted us and warmed our faces during our long discussion at the Porta Aurea. The question arose as to when Ravenna was surrounded by a city wall, whether as early as the time of Claudius or as late as the time of Honorius or even Valentinian III. We then turned our attention to the Neonic Baptistery. We were impressed by the ceiling and wall mosaics. We were most interested in the alleged depictions of Bible stories such as Daniel in the lions' den, which seemed to us to be a Christian reinterpretation of existing images, and the supposed depictions of prophets, whose physiognomically irritating postures suggested a reworking of a previous Roman-Pagan use of the building. After visiting Ravenna Cathedral, we were able to make a direct comparison in the Arian baptistery between the different interpretations of the story of John the Baptist, which both baptisteries had chosen as their ceiling mosaic. The afternoon of the third day was also characterized by impressive mosaic splendour. We marveled at the presbytery of San Vitale and explored its mosaics, of which the so-called imperial mosaics of Justinian and Theodora are particularly noteworthy. The church from the 6th century is considered to be the most complete central building in the West. Afterwards, we went to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, although its intended function as a tomb is not certain; the Roman regent was definitely not buried there, but in Rome. All around the mausoleum, the viewer is surrounded by mosaics. The dark blue starry sky mosaic on the ceiling and the orange windows cast everything in a wonderful light. Another highlight was the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, an early Byzantine villa. Here we were able to marvel at the mosaic floors of the 6th century villa and understand the different construction phases of the building. Late in the evening after dinner, we went in search of the foundations of the Roman city wall in the north and those of the church of Santa Croce, which belonged to the mausoleum of Galla Placidia from the 5th to the 17th century.
We returned on Sunday with many wonderful impressions in our luggage. The mosaics impress with their size, detail and colorfulness. Many of the buildings are UNECO World Heritage Sites. The wealth of preserved buildings and ruins of the late antique city allows visitors to experience antiquity at first hand. Ravenna is definitely worth a visit!
Text: Anna Katharina Romund, Photos: Nicole Diersen
