Mausoleum of Theodoric

Interesting facts

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.

Twelve stone lugs project from the rim of the dome, and their faces are carved with the names of eight apostles and the four evangelists.

A late-antique chronicle, the Anonymus Valesianus, records that Theodoric built the tomb in his own lifetime and had a gigantic stone sought out to finish it.

The name of the architect has not come down to us, and the building was apparently still unfinished when Theodoric died in 526.

Below the dome runs a frieze of an unusual pattern, often likened to rows of hanging tongs and compared with motifs in Germanic goldsmiths' work.

Around the year 1000 the tomb became part of a Benedictine monastery called Santa Maria ad Farum, after a lighthouse built against it when the sea was still nearby.

By the 18th century floods from a nearby river had buried much of the lower storey; clearing began in 1844 and was finished only in 1918 and 1919.

The porphyry tub carries reliefs of a lion's head and of large mooring rings, and its depth of about 65 centimetres is close to that of a modern bathtub.

The German architect Wilhelm Kreis drew on its ten-sided plan for several Bismarck towers and monuments in the early 20th century.

Why it is worth it

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. It is a compact two-storey building of Istrian stone, ten-sided on both levels, and it is capped not by a vault but by a single enormous stone: a monolithic dome about ten metres across and weighing some 230 tonnes, hauled and lifted into place with the technology of the early 6th century.

The stone came from Istria, from a quarry about 400 km away by land. The masons laid it in large squared blocks, the old Roman manner known as opus quadratum, a technique that had been out of use for four centuries. Yet the decoration owes nothing to Roman or Byzantine art; experts reviewing it for UNESCO singled out its Gothic character and noted that it is the only surviving tomb of a king from this period. The lower storey holds a room entered through a niche, probably a chapel for funeral rites, and an outside stair leads to the upper level.

In the centre of the upper room stands a porphyry tub, a fragment of an ancient Roman bath basin, in which Theodoric was buried. He did not rest there. During the Byzantine period his remains were removed and the mausoleum was converted into a Christian oratory. The empty basin and the bare, lofty chamber under the great stone lid are what visitors see today.

The mausoleum is one of the eight buildings of Ravenna inscribed together by UNESCO in 1996 as the Early Christian Monuments and Mosaics of Ravenna, and it makes a striking counterpoint to the glittering mosaic interiors of the city's churches: plain stone rather than gold. It stands in a small park just north of the historic centre.

Getting there

The mausoleum is on Via delle Industrie, about 1.4 km from the centre of Ravenna and roughly 850 metres, a 13-minute walk, from Ravenna railway station; several city bus lines stop at the nearby Mausoleo stop. The nearest airport is Forlì (FRL), about 28 km away.

Mausoleum of Theodoric

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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