Ravenna was the capital of the
Western Roman Empire in its final years, 402 to 476. It is renowned for its ancient
mosaics, among the few to have survived the
Iconoclasm. It was also where
Dante died in 1321, and he is buried there.
It is a provincial capital in the Emilio-Romagna region, and lies close to the Adriatic coast. Its Roman port was called Classis. It is a World Heritage site because of its baptisteries, chapels, and basilicas, dating from the 400s and 500s and including masterpieces of the Byzantine style. The World Heritage listing covers eight monuments:
Galla Placidia was the sister of the emperor
Honorius, who moved the capital from
Milan to Ravenna. It remained capital when the Roman Empire fell to the
Ostrogoth kingdom of Italy, and under the Byzantine
exarchs when
Italy was retaken. Conquered by the
Lombards from 751 to 756, it was given to the Pope, as the foundation of the
Papal States.
The Tomb of Dante is a neoclassical work by Camillo Morigia in 1780. From the vault hangs a votive lamp, filled with Tuscan oil by the citizens of Florence each year on the anniversary of his death (13 September). The area around the tomb, known as the zona dantesca is always silent.