A Sole Event: Ravenna and its superb Byzantine mosaics

This morning we were off on the train at 8.15 to go to Ravenna. the city of mosaics. We changed trains at Bologna. We arrived in Ravenna just before lunch and had a two minute walk to our hotel. One of the features of Ravenna, besides the wonderful mosaics, is the peacefulness and relaxed atmosphere of the town where people travel around by bicycle. We found out later that we too could have gone around by bicycle which would have been a change from walking. The first church we went to was St John the Evangelist and there were just fragments of frescoes and mosaics left in the reconstructed Church. This Church was originally built in 425 with the oldest mosaics in Ravenna and a number of these were destroyed by the bombing during the second world war.

Then it was on to the spectacular church of St Apollinarius with amazing mosaics and an interesting history. (Before I left Fr Merv Duffy had given me a quick lesson on mosaics in Ravenna accompanied by photographs). Here in the Church we saw a myriad of mosaics depicting many of the miracles of Jesus and well as encounters with his apostles. What is noted is that there is no crucifixion scene as at this stage of history it was something of a scandal. The church at this time was also influenced by the Arian heresy. The Arians held that Jesus the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father. Evidence of the influence of Arianism is seen where mosaics of curtains cover Arian saints but some evidence is left in the hands around the pillars. On one side of the church women martyrs are depicted and on the other the men all very uniform with gold in the background.

The wise men

The woman at the well

He is not here - he is risen

Glimpses of Arian saints in the mosaics above and below... the hands around the pillar all that remain

Next to Dante's tomb and then on to the baptistry of the Neionian. It portrayed the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan.

Our next visit was to the Cathedral and the Cathedral museum. The depictions of the Ascension and the Assumption of Mary in the Duomo, while not mosaics, were still quite amazing.

The Assumption

The Ascension

The next church was St Francis which did not look at all spectacular until we went down stairs in front of the altar and down to the crypt - click on the photo of the crypt below and look between the two pillars on the right hand side to see the difference...

We walked on to another treasure, the Church of St Vitale. On entering the church we encountered the colour of the mosaics that surrounded us and on the floor the mosaic tiles in black and white. And we were not finished.

We went out and into the Mausoleum and again saw spectacular coloured scenes and the Good Shepherd scene above the door is exquisite but hard to photograph because of the light.