Baptistry of Neon

Interesting facts

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.

The heads of Christ and John the Baptist, the dove and the jewelled cross at the centre of the dome are 18th-century remakes, not fifth-century work.

A restoration of 1897 to 1906 stripped off stucco decoration thought to be later additions; it proved to be fifth-century, and only reconstructions remain.

The river god beside Christ is identified by a mosaic inscription spelling out the Jordan's name, a labelling habit borrowed from Hellenistic art.

The twelve apostles wear robes alternating white and gold against a deep blue ground, and each carries a crown to offer to Christ.

Sixteen stucco prophets, once brightly painted, stand in the window zone: four major and twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament.

The dome's outer ring shows illusionistic architecture with empty thrones and altars bearing open Gospels, a stage-set device rooted in Roman wall painting.

'Orthodox' in its other name kept its fifth-century sense: Christians of correct doctrine, as opposed to the Arian faith of the Goths.

The four small apses on the outside were added in the tenth century, while the blind arcades on the brick walls belong to the original building.

The octagonal marble font in the middle dates from the 16th century, but the small pulpit where the priest stood to baptise survives from the fifth.

Why it is worth it

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. It is a small octagonal brick building, begun under Bishop Ursus around the turn of the fifth century as part of his cathedral complex (the basilica itself was demolished in 1734) and completed by Bishop Neon in the later fifth century, when the mosaics were added. It is also called the Orthodox Baptistery, to distinguish it from the Arian Baptistery built for the Ostrogothic king Theodoric some fifty years later.

From outside it looks unremarkable, partly because the ground has risen around it: the original floor now lies about three metres below street level. The eight sides follow a scheme used in nearly every early Christian baptistery, eight standing for the seven days of creation plus the day of resurrection. The effect is saved entirely for the interior, where almost every surface above the arches is covered in mosaic, marble inlay and stucco.

Look straight up. At the centre of the dome, John the Baptist pours water over a bearded Christ standing waist-deep in the Jordan, while a figure beside them personifies the river itself, a pagan device carried straight over from Roman art. Around this medallion the twelve apostles walk in two processions until Peter and Paul meet at the far side. ICOMOS, assessing Ravenna's monuments for the World Heritage List, called this the finest and most complete surviving early Christian baptistery, one that keeps the fluid human figure of Greco-Roman art.

It is best seen together with the other monuments, San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia among them.

Getting there

The baptistery stands in the historic centre of Ravenna, about 400 metres from the heart of the old town. The nearest airport is Forlì (FRL), about 27 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Baptistery of Neon is a Roman religious building in Ravenna, northeastern Italy. The most ancient monument remaining in the city, it was partly erected on the site of a Roman bath. It is also called the Orthodox Baptistery to distinguish it from the Arian Baptistery constructed on behest of Ostrogothic King Theodoric some 50 years later.

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Baptistry of Neon

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia