The Most Beautiful Places in Ravenna
7 places · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Ravenna are Baptistry of Neon, Mausoleum of Theodoric and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. The list covers 7 places. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Ravenna had a brief but extraordinary moment at the centre of history. In the fifth century it became the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, and later the seat of Byzantine rule in Italy. Each of these powers built churches and tombs and covered them with mosaics, and because the city declined afterwards, those interiors survived largely untouched. Together they form the richest collection of early Christian mosaics anywhere, recognised by UNESCO.
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is small and plain outside, but inside its vault is a deep blue sky of golden stars above scenes of the Good Shepherd. The Baptistry of Neon shows the baptism of Christ in its dome, ringed by a procession of the apostles. At the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, long processions of martyrs and virgins move along the walls of the nave toward Christ and the Virgin.
The Basilica of San Vitale holds the most famous images of all: the emperor Justinian and empress Theodora with their courts, facing each other across the apse in gold and colour. Outside the old centre, the Mausoleum of Theodoric takes a very different form, a two-storey tomb of white stone capped by a single enormous monolith used as its roof.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baptistry of Neon | Church building | ✓ |
| 2 | Mausoleum of Theodoric | Mausoleum | ✓ |
| 3 | Mausoleum of Galla Placidia | Mausoleum | ✓ |
| 4 | Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna | Church building | ✓ |
| 5 | Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna | Church building | ✓ |
| 6 | Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe | Church building | ✓ |
| 7 | Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna | Church building | ✓ |
01 Baptistry of Neon
Battistero Neoniano
Italy · 1.9 km from Ravenna44.416° N 12.197° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Clodette662000 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ravenna, a quiet city in north-eastern Italy that rose to power in the last century of the Western Roman Empire and under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, holds eight early Christian monuments on the UNESCO list, and the Baptistery of Neon is the oldest of them.
Did you know? The river god beside Christ is identified by a mosaic inscription spelling out the Jordan's name, a labelling habit borrowed from Hellenistic art.
02 Mausoleum of Theodoric
Mausoleo di Teodorico
Italy · 1 km from Ravenna44.425° N 12.209° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Marcospinelli1959 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, had this tomb built for himself around 520, and it looks like no other building of its time.
Did you know? The name of the architect has not come down to us, and the building was apparently still unfinished when Theodoric died in 526.
03 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Mausoleo di Galla Placidia
Italy · 1.8 km from Ravenna44.421° N 12.197° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by chatst2 from Pixabay From the outside there is almost nothing to prepare you. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a small, low building of plain brick in the shape of a cross, its dome hidden inside a square tower, the walls relieved only by blind arcades.
Did you know? The art historian Gillian Mackie argues that the saint beside the burning gridiron is Vincent of Saragossa rather than Lawrence, pointing to the cupboard of Gospel books.
04 Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna
Basilica di San Vitale
Italy · 1.9 km from Ravenna44.421° N 12.196° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Terragio67 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Two processions face each other across the apse of San Vitale. On one side the emperor Justinian, dressed in imperial purple and wearing a halo, stands among courtiers, soldiers, clergy and Bishop Maximian.
Did you know? Bishop Maximian's name was added above his head later, suggesting his portrait may have replaced that of his predecessor, Bishop Victor.
05 Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo
Italy · 1.3 km from Ravenna44.417° N 12.205° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Simo.Albo80 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Along both walls of the nave of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna run three tiers of mosaics on a ground of gold, among the most complete cycles to survive from the early 6th century.
Did you know? The thirteen Passion scenes in the upper tier leave out both the flagellation and the crucifixion itself.
06 Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Italy · 4.6 km from Ravenna44.380° N 12.232° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Marek Śliwecki · CC BY-SA 4.0 Standing alone in open country south of Ravenna, Sant'Apollinare in Classe looks from outside like a plain brick barn with a round tower beside it.
Did you know? The apse mosaic shows Saint Apollinaris with arms raised among twelve white sheep in a green landscape.
07 Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna
Cappella Arcivescovile
Italy · 1.9 km from Ravenna44.416° N 12.198° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
GFreihalter · CC BY-SA 3.0 Ravenna is famous for its mosaics, and this is the smallest of its great mosaic interiors, a private oratory tucked into the first floor of the archbishop's palace.
Did you know? Four archangels on the vault hold up a medallion bearing the monogram of Christ.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Ravenna?
- On our list, Baptistry of Neon ranks first, followed by Mausoleum of Theodoric and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
- Why does Ravenna have so many mosaics?
- Ravenna was a capital of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic kingdom and Byzantine Italy between the fifth and eighth centuries, and its rulers decorated churches lavishly. The city's later decline meant the interiors were seldom rebuilt.
- Where are the mosaics of Justinian and Theodora?
- They are in the apse of the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, completed in the sixth century.
- Why is the roof of Theodoric's Mausoleum famous?
- The dome is cut from a single block of Istrian stone weighing around 230 tonnes, and how it was lifted into place is still debated.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Ravenna?
- In our collection, the places in Ravenna are most often churches (5), mausoleums (2) and temples (1).
- How many places are on this list in Ravenna?
- The list covers 7 places.