Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

Interesting facts

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.

The belief that Galla Placidia lies here goes back only to the thirteenth century; she most likely rests in Rome, beside Old St Peter's.

The building began as a cross-shaped oratory attached to the church of the Holy Cross, the imperial palace church founded in Ravenna in 417.

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.

The Good Shepherd above the entrance is beardless and dressed in imperial purple and gold, holding a cross-shaped staff instead of a shepherd's crook.

A gold cross sits at the very top of the starry dome, with the four symbols of the Evangelists set in the pendentives at its corners.

Pairs of apostles in the lunettes under the dome raise their right arms in a gesture of acclamation, probably directed at the martyr in the southern arm.

The deer drinking at a spring are often read as an image of Psalm 42, in which the soul thirsts for God as a hart longs for water.

Galla Placidia was a daughter of Theodosius I, married a Visigothic king in 414 and later ruled the Western Empire as regent for her young son.

Why it is worth it

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. It was built in the second quarter of the fifth century, sometime between about 425 and 450, as an annex to the church of the Holy Cross in Ravenna, and today it sits in a garden beside the basilica of San Vitale. Step through the door, and the dim interior turns out to be completely lined with mosaic, among the oldest and best preserved in the city that is famous for them.

The effect depends on darkness. Light filters in through thin alabaster panels, modern replacements, set in the narrow windows, and the glass tesserae answer with a deep blue that seems to glow from within. In the dome, golden stars are scattered across a night-blue sky. Above the entrance, a youthful Good Shepherd sits among his sheep in a green landscape, still wholly in the language of late Roman art. Opposite, a saint strides towards a gridiron set over flames, usually identified as Saint Lawrence, and elsewhere deer come to drink at a spring. Local tradition holds that Cole Porter came here in the 1920s and that the starry vault inspired "Night and Day".

The name is a tradition, not a record. Galla Placidia, mother of the emperor Valentinian III, died in Rome around 450 and was not buried here; the three large stone sarcophagi inside are attributed by custom to her brother Honorius, her husband Constantius III and her son. Over the centuries the floor was raised by about a metre and a half against the flooding of this low coastal land, which makes the small space feel even more compressed. Since 1996 the mausoleum has been part of the World Heritage listing of the Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna, alongside San Vitale, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the baptisteries.

Getting there

The mausoleum stands in the historic centre of Ravenna, next to the Basilica of San Vitale, about 1 km from the city centre and within walking distance of Ravenna railway station, which has direct trains to Bologna in about an hour. The nearest airport is Forlì (FRL), about 27 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a Late Antique Roman building in Ravenna, Italy, built between 425 and 450. It was added to the World Heritage List together with seven other structures in Ravenna in 1996. Despite its common name, the empress Galla Placidia was not buried in the building, a misconception dating from the thirteenth century; she died in Rome and was buried there, probably alongside Honorius in the Mausoleum of Honorius at Old Saint Peter's Basilica.

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Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia