Ravenna is on Italy’s tourist map for one reason: its 1,500-year-old churches decorated with best-in-the-West Byzantine mosaics. While locals go about their business, busloads of tourists slip in and out of this town near the Adriatic coast to bask in the glittering glory of Byzantium, the eastern Roman Empire. Imagine that it’s AD 540.
The city of Rome has been looted, the land is crawling with barbarians and the Roman Empire is crumbling fast. Into this chaos comes the emperor of the East, Justinian, bringing order and stability — and an appreciation for mosaic art. As the westernmost pillar of the Byzantine Empire, Ravenna was a flickering light in Europe’s Dark Ages.
To fully appreciate the mosaics in its ancient churches, bring your binoculars and take in every last detail. Sit in a wooden pew, front and center, and feel yourself transported to a spiritual world. My favorite church in Ravenna is Justinian’s Basilica di San Vitale.
The building’s octagonal shape — very much an Eastern style — actually inspired the construction of the magnificent Hagia Sophia church built 10 years later in Constantinople (now Istanbul). While it’s impressive enough to see a church from 15 centuries ago, it’s even more exciting to see one decorated with brilliant scenes in marble and glass mosaics — each chip no bigger than a fingernail. High above the altar, Christ is in heaven, overseeing creation.
To the left of the altar, running things here on earth is Emperor Jus.