Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna

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. The two panels were completed by 547. Together with the rest of the church's decoration, they are among the largest and best-preserved Byzantine mosaic cycles outside Istanbul, and the Theodora panel is the only portrait of the empress that can be identified with certainty.

Bishop Ecclesius began the church in 526, while Ravenna was still ruled by the Ostrogoths. Bishop Maximian consecrated it in 547, after Justinian's armies had retaken Italy. The cost was paid by a local banker, Julius Argentarius, who also funded Sant'Apollinare in Classe nearby. The plan is unusual for a church in the West: an octagon within an octagon, with a domed central space surrounded by a two-storey ambulatory. It resembles the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople. Its builders made the dome light by fitting hollow terracotta tubes into one another instead of using solid brick, which is the first known structural use of such forms. The church combines Roman features, such as its dome and stepped towers, with Byzantine ones: thin bricks, a polygonal apse, carved capitals and early flying buttresses. Above the altar, the vault is covered with garlands of leaves and fruit, birds and peacocks, all converging on the Lamb of God. In the apse a youthful Christ sits on a blue globe, handing the martyr's crown to Saint Vitalis, while Ecclesius presents a model of the church. Scenes from the Old Testament fill the lunettes, among them Abraham's hospitality to the three angels and the sacrifice of Isaac. The paintings on the dome are much later Baroque work from 1778–1782.

Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, then the seat of the Ostrogothic kings, and later the centre of Byzantine rule in Italy. Each period left buildings decorated with mosaics. San Vitale is one of eight early Christian monuments in the city that UNESCO inscribed together as a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also the only major church from Justinian's reign to survive almost unchanged.

Getting there

San Vitale stands in the historic centre of Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna. The nearest airport is Forlì Luigi Ridolfi International Airport (FRL), about 27 km away. Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ) is about 73 km away.