The final site waited until after lunch and siesta time. (How quickly we adapt to a routine involving naps.) The Basilica of Sant'Apolinare Nuovo was only about two blocks away from the apartment - just beyond our favorite pastry shop and the Co-op supermarket.
AI summarizes that it is a long church with rows of holy men and women along the walls. It is very different from the first two we visited... it is a standard Catholic Church which above the nave has a long mosaic (on both sides) of so-called lesser saints and martyrs all in a line.
This church was built around the turn of the 6th century by Theoderic, king of the Goths. After the Goths were run out of town, the church was converted to Catholic by order of Emperor Justinian. It was consectrated to Saint Apolinare in the 9th century, but, since there was already a famous nearby church by that name, "Nuovo" was added to distinguish it.
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| Emperor Justinian |
Starting at the back left of the church, there is a sort of reference to Ravenna's location on the sea, and then the line of people begin.
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| more and more and more, until it ends in... |
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| three Italian men presenting gifts |
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| to this throne. |
The other wall's mosaic is similar, but instead features named saints in clerical garb and halos as this excerpt shows.
All of the mosaics are at least twenty feet above you, leaving the remainder of the church with an empty feel.
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| the church altar (not a single mosaic!!) |
I did find some interesting side chapels... there was one with frescos that were clearly old nd in need of repair.
That concludes our tour of Ravenna. We're off to dinner soon.
We head to the ship tomorrow, so that will be a full day. Since I don't know how good the WiFi is going to be, I can't promise daily posts. The pictures in these posts take a while to load and the previous cruise ship systems can't always handle it.
Here's the ship's schedule:
9th Ravenna, sailing at 5 pm
10th Dubrovnik, Croatia
11th Kotor, Montenegro
12th Corfu, Greece
13th Katakolon, Greece (for Olympia)
14th Mykonos, Greece
15th Santorini, Greece
16th Athens, arriving 5:30 am
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