The Mosaics of Ravenna

Last week my husband and I packed up the car, the cats, a suitcase and lots of food and headed down towards the South to Pescara. From Rivoltella, Pescara in central Italy, looks southern. It is like living in Connecticut and going to Virginia. They might not all consider themselves southerners but from Connecticut, it seems like the south. The roads in Pescara aren't perfectly paved, the people dress with more regular clothes, you see less Maserati's and Ferrari's, and people get chubbier and smile a lot more and talk to you without judging your shoes first. I had mentioned to the man a few months ago that I wanted to see the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna. He is a mensch and after working lots of overtime, traveling with cats, and going to his moms he remembered taking me to see all of the mosaics. Ravenna is on the Eastern Coast of Italy just under Venice. The mosaics there were built ages ago.

It was bitterly cold, violently windy and chilly to the bone the day we went. I am immune to bad weather thanks to living all over the world with my military family (Alaska, WA state, Bavaria). Plus my dad (from NY) would hurl snowballs like projectiles at us kids every chance he got when it snowed. I can't blame him there, we probably drove him nuts and snowballs were a mild way to get back at us. We got to love snowball fights with dad, he built the best snow walls and all the neighborhood kids (and some other dads) would come out to have a snowball fight. He is a big kid at heart and loved to play with us. I think the cold built resilience and character, though my mom would say it built winter colds. However, my man is from sunny Naples, grew up under the sun like a healthy tomato and cold is unbearable to him. I don't think we will be moving to Sweden any time soon! So I doubly appreciate his taking one for the team and walking with numb fingers and a red cold face without complaining through the blasting wind as we went through the streets of Ravenna to the churches.

Getting to each mosaic site was like walking in a labyrinth with no directions.

I love the fading color of the building on the left

First we visited The Basilica of San Vitale, built in the Roman style around 527 AD. That is so old! My initial reaction seeing them was awe and amazement. How is it that in 527 people could build such amazing huge, detailed things without the Internet, college or smart phones? A rich Greek banker called Julius Argentarius was the one who paid for and thought of building this. Greeks are great! Amazing I tell you, check out the pictures :

This church has the best preserved mosaics other than Constantinople

The presbytery (the front of the church) mosaics show the sacrfices from the Old Testament: story of Moses, sacrifice of Isaac, burning bush and Cain and Able. See those two angels at the top? They represent the races: one Jerusalem (the Jews) and the other Bethlehem (gentiles)

The arch before the presbytery depicts the apostles but the artists threw in the sons of Saint Vitale (since the church was built in his honor)

,

Abraham going to sacrifice his only son Isaac before God said it was ok and the little dude could keep living.

Next, we went behind the Basilica to a tiny little brick cottage that didnt look like much from the outside, but inside it was spectacularly decorated with blue mosaics. This is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the oldest of all mosaics and I think this one was my favorite! The story stands that it was built around 450 AD to be used as a buial site for the daughter of Roman Emperator, Theodosius I. She was embalmed and proped up in a sitting position under the magnificent mosaics. By accident, in 1577, someone burned her body (oops). Did that person have a blank expression when they saw her go in flames? Did he run like the wind? Did he get punished? I am curious as to how that happened, who did it, and what the reaction was. Anyways, here are the pictures of that!

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

The entrance

the mosaics reach from the archs of the ceiling to the walls, simply divine!

I love this pattern.

Ceiling mosaics

Banned book lovers, this one is for you. Saint Vincent was forced to burn the sacred books. See? Even the best books were burned back then. This mosaic would do well as an example at a librarian conference, I think.

 We then left the mausuleum and made our way 30 minutes walking in the cold wind to the Arian Baptistry. Before getting there, we passed a lot of sarcophagi, I saw one I particularly liked took a picture of it:

it looks like someone is being bound and hung or tossed in a well.

Might I add though, that I think sarcophagi are excellent ways to get rid of people you dont like. Do you know someone who is a marathon talker or nagger? They just won't stop yapping? Toss them in a sarcophagus, close it with the stone lid and leave them in there for a few hours. There are holes in the bottom for air. Just kidding (maybe). Living in Italy, and seeing the ancient ways people got rid of each other, used each other and fought with each other makes me so much more aware of the creativity of both good and evil in people. In the Castle of Lonato, for example then I will get back on track, the queen ordered for the prisoners of a war to be put in a small tower, then the tower entrance was walled in with cement and bricks and the people died in there. Their bones were just discovered like 30 years ago.Creativity can grow in so many directions.

Anyway, back to holy sites. Here are the pictures from the baptistry:

I love the shadows here

The image of Jesus being baptized is surrounded by the apostles

There he is! Saint John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.

I love these shadows

The entrance of the baptistry

For the mosaics, that is pretty much it. There was one more church that we visited in Ravenna, the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Maria dei Tumori (Mary of Turmors). She helps those with cancer, and doctors who work with cancer patients. The altar was modest, in comparison to other altars.

Santa Maria, Madre di Dio,
prega per noi..

We then got back to the car, where the cats were waiting in their comfy sherpa travel bags, got some more gas and hit the road for another few hours before arriving to Pescara.

Fatty getting out of his bag

Sherpa bags are easy to carry, have a top opening to load in cats and are overall excellent. I have two large ones, and leave them open all day. The cats love sleeping in them every day and that makes travel days easier.