The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Emilia-Romagna
9 places ยท updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Emilia-Romagna are Baptistry of Neon, Modena Cathedral and Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. The list covers 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Emilia-Romagna's World Heritage sites record two moments when this stretch of northern Italy stood at the centre of things. In the fifth and sixth centuries Ravenna was the seat of emperors, of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric and of Byzantine governors, and its rulers left the finest group of early Christian mosaics anywhere. Six centuries later the free cities along the Via Emilia built in stone and covered their streets with porticoes, creating an urban fabric of its own kind.
In Ravenna, the small cross-shaped Mausoleum of Galla Placidia has a vault of deep blue mosaic scattered with gold stars. The Baptistery of Neon shows the baptism of Christ in its dome, and San Vitale holds the imperial mosaic portraits of Justinian and Theodora. Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, built by Theodoric, lines its nave with processions of saints, and Theodoric's own mausoleum outside the walls is roofed by a single enormous block of Istrian stone.
Modena Cathedral, begun in 1099, stands with its bell tower, the Torre Civica, and Piazza Grande as one of the purest Romanesque ensembles in Italy. In Bologna, the porticoes that shelter its streets climb out of the city as a covered walkway of 666 arches to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca on its hilltop.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baptistry of Neon | Church building | โ |
| 2 | Modena Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
| 3 | Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca | Church building | โ |
| 4 | Mausoleum of Theodoric | Mausoleum | โ |
| 5 | Mausoleum of Galla Placidia | Mausoleum | โ |
| 6 | Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna | Church building | โ |
| 7 | Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna | Church building | โ |
| 8 | Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe | Church building | โ |
| 9 | Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna | Church building | โ |
01 Baptistry of Neon
Battistero Neoniano
Italy ยท 1.9 km from Ravenna44.416ยฐ N 12.197ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Clodette662000 ยท 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? Bishop Neon replaced the building's original flat ceiling with a dome around 458, building it from rows of hollow terracotta tubes to keep it light.
02 Modena Cathedral
Duomo di Modena
Italy ยท 0.6 km from Modena44.646ยฐ N 10.925ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Ermaf62 from Pixabay Modena Cathedral is one of the key buildings of European Romanesque, and it is unusual in that we know the names of the two men who made it: the architect Lanfranco and the sculptor Wiligelmus. Begun in 1099 over the grave of the city's patron, St Geminianus, and consecrated by Pope Lucius III in 1184, it stands on Piazza Grande beside its bell tower, the Ghirlandina.
03 Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca
Santuario della Madonna di San Luca
Italy ยท 4.1 km from Bologna44.479ยฐ N 11.298ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by alex1965 from Pixabay Bologna is famous for its porticoes, and the most remarkable of them leads to this church. The Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca crowns the wooded Colle della Guardia, about 300 m above the plain just south-west of the historic centre. Its dome is visible from far across the plain. 8 km to the church.
04 Mausoleum of Theodoric
Mausoleo di Teodorico
Italy ยท 1 km from Ravenna44.425ยฐ N 12.209ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Marcospinelli1959 ยท 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? A crack runs right through the monolithic roof stone and is clearly visible from the upper chamber; it probably formed when the dome was lifted and set back down.
05 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Mausoleo di Galla Placidia
Italy ยท 1.8 km from Ravenna44.421ยฐ N 12.197ยฐ 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 empress was reportedly once seated embalmed in the largest sarcophagus, visible through a peephole, until children set the contents alight with a candle in 1577.
06 Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna
Basilica di San Vitale
Italy ยท 1.9 km from Ravenna44.421ยฐ N 12.196ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Terragio67 ยท 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. On the other, the empress Theodora, crowned and hung with jewels, offers a chalice, surrounded by women of her court in patterned silks, against a background with a fountain and draped curtains.
Did you know? The church cost 26,000 gold solidi, roughly 16 kilograms of gold, a sum met by the local banker Julius Argentarius.
07 Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo
Italy ยท 1.3 km from Ravenna44.417ยฐ N 12.205ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Simo.Albo80 ยท 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? Some art historians see the earliest image of Satan in Western art here: a blue angel standing behind goats at Christ's left in the Last Judgement scene.
08 Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Italy ยท 4.6 km from Ravenna44.380ยฐ N 12.232ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Marek ลliwecki ยท 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. Step through the door and the effect is overwhelming: a long, luminous nave lined with marble columns leads the eye to an apse shimmering with green and gold mosaic, one of the great images of early Christian art.
Did you know? The basilica is one of eight Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996.
09 Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna
Cappella Arcivescovile
Italy ยท 1.9 km from Ravenna44.416ยฐ N 12.198ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
GFreihalter ยท 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. It was built around 495 for Bishop Peter II, at the very moment the city was ruled by Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king who followed the Arian form of Christianity. That context explains what the chapel says.
Did you know? Since 1996 the chapel has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna.
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 โ 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 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Emilia-Romagna?
- On our list, Baptistry of Neon ranks first, followed by Modena Cathedral and Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.
- What are the Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna?
- They are eight buildings inscribed together by UNESCO in 1996: the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Neonian and Arian baptisteries, the Archiepiscopal Chapel, the Mausoleum of Theodoric and the basilicas of San Vitale, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and Sant'Apollinare in Classe.
- Why are the porticoes of Bologna a World Heritage Site?
- Bologna has kept covered arcades along its streets since the Middle Ages, built in wood, stone, brick and concrete across many centuries. In 2021 UNESCO listed a selection of them, including the long portico to San Luca, as an outstanding example of a living urban tradition.
- How was the Mausoleum of Theodoric roofed?
- Its roof is a single monolithic dome of Istrian stone, quarried across the Adriatic and hoisted into place in the sixth century. Small handles carved around its rim were probably used to lift it.
- How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites are on this list in Emilia-Romagna?
- The list covers 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.