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42640001 Nave, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Nave, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna; taken with a Canon EOS 1v.
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The basilica has a very spacious nave with side aisles. 58 wide windows, including five in the apse, flood the interior with light. The nave is supported on two dozen slender marble columns topped with Byzantine carved capitals. These are not ancient spoils, but a perfectly matched set made specifically for the church in the imperial workshop of Proconnesos. The beautiful capitals are known as the "butterfly" or "leaves blown by the wind" type.
Originally the nave walls and clerestory were covered in mosaics (as can still be seen at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo) but these have all disappeared. The lower part of the wall and the spandrels of the arches are now decorated with frescoes and stucco of the 18th century. The fresco medallions depict bishops of Ravenna.
The floor of the interior was also entirely paved in mosaic, but only a bit of the ancient pavement survives at the back of the right aisle. It includes a partial inscription noting that the work was sponsored by Gautentia and Felix. Above it is a marble altar canopy, with an inscription dating it to the early 9th century. Another mosaic fragment, found in 1953, is displayed on the right aisle wall behind glass.
The west end of the basilica is fronted by a narthex, which contains the small ticket kiosk and some artifacts found in the area. The east end has a large central apse, which is round inside but polygonal outside, flanked by two square chapels known as the prothesis and diaconicon, respectively. The side chapels have small pentagonal apses. The chapel on the right was hosting a baptism during our visit.
The main highlight of Sant'Apollinare in Classe is certainly the glittering mosaics of the presbytery, apse and triumphal arch, which range in date from the 6th to 12th centuries, mostly the former.
sacred-destinations.com/italy/ravenna-st-apollinare-in-classe
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While the Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo is the richest in historical culture for its synthesis of the Arian and Catholic religions in the ancient oecumenicity, and while the Basilica of S. Vitale is the most important palatine basilica for the theologies of the Christian Roman Empire, the Basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe is the Church of Ravenna's most illustrious religious building precisely for the celebration of its historical beginnings and for its high position (second only to Rome) in ancient church history.
This basilica is in fact a monument-document of the apostolic-episcopal situation of the early Christian church. Here, on the historical and documentary foundation of the ancient tomb of Apollinare, where a small basilica-martyrion had been built on the tomb of Ravenna's first bishop and only martyr, the imposing imperial-ecclesiastic monument we see was built in the first half of the 6th century.
initaly.com/regions/byzant/byzant4.htm#santclas
42640001 Nave, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Nave, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna; taken with a Canon EOS 1v.
.
The basilica has a very spacious nave with side aisles. 58 wide windows, including five in the apse, flood the interior with light. The nave is supported on two dozen slender marble columns topped with Byzantine carved capitals. These are not ancient spoils, but a perfectly matched set made specifically for the church in the imperial workshop of Proconnesos. The beautiful capitals are known as the "butterfly" or "leaves blown by the wind" type.
Originally the nave walls and clerestory were covered in mosaics (as can still be seen at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo) but these have all disappeared. The lower part of the wall and the spandrels of the arches are now decorated with frescoes and stucco of the 18th century. The fresco medallions depict bishops of Ravenna.
The floor of the interior was also entirely paved in mosaic, but only a bit of the ancient pavement survives at the back of the right aisle. It includes a partial inscription noting that the work was sponsored by Gautentia and Felix. Above it is a marble altar canopy, with an inscription dating it to the early 9th century. Another mosaic fragment, found in 1953, is displayed on the right aisle wall behind glass.
The west end of the basilica is fronted by a narthex, which contains the small ticket kiosk and some artifacts found in the area. The east end has a large central apse, which is round inside but polygonal outside, flanked by two square chapels known as the prothesis and diaconicon, respectively. The side chapels have small pentagonal apses. The chapel on the right was hosting a baptism during our visit.
The main highlight of Sant'Apollinare in Classe is certainly the glittering mosaics of the presbytery, apse and triumphal arch, which range in date from the 6th to 12th centuries, mostly the former.
sacred-destinations.com/italy/ravenna-st-apollinare-in-classe
.
While the Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo is the richest in historical culture for its synthesis of the Arian and Catholic religions in the ancient oecumenicity, and while the Basilica of S. Vitale is the most important palatine basilica for the theologies of the Christian Roman Empire, the Basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe is the Church of Ravenna's most illustrious religious building precisely for the celebration of its historical beginnings and for its high position (second only to Rome) in ancient church history.
This basilica is in fact a monument-document of the apostolic-episcopal situation of the early Christian church. Here, on the historical and documentary foundation of the ancient tomb of Apollinare, where a small basilica-martyrion had been built on the tomb of Ravenna's first bishop and only martyr, the imposing imperial-ecclesiastic monument we see was built in the first half of the 6th century.
initaly.com/regions/byzant/byzant4.htm#santclas