Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
From outside it is a modest brick building in the shape of a cross. Inside, every surface is covered in mosaic in deep blue and gold, with a vault full of stars. It is one of the oldest and best-preserved mosaic rooms of late antiquity.
Ravenna became the capital of the Western Roman Empire at the beginning of the 5th century. Galla Placidia, daughter of the emperor Theodosius I, effectively ruled the empire for a time as regent for her son Valentinian III. The mausoleum was built in the second quarter of the 5th century, attached to a church that no longer exists. It is called her tomb, but she died in Rome in 450 and was probably buried there. The building may instead have been a chapel dedicated to St Lawrence.
The plan is a Greek cross with short arms and a square tower over the crossing, in which a dome is hidden beneath the roof. The walls are built of brick and are almost completely plain outside. Inside, mosaic covers the whole upper part of the room. The dome shows a golden cross in a dark blue sky with hundreds of stars, and in the corners the symbols of the evangelists. Above the entrance sits Christ as the Good Shepherd among his sheep, and opposite is Lawrence with the gridiron on which, according to legend, he died. The room is small and dark, and the light comes through narrow windows with thin sheets of alabaster.
Since 1996 the mausoleum has been part of the World Heritage Site of Ravenna’s Early Christian monuments, together with San Vitale and Sant’Apollinare in Classe, among others. The floor level has risen by more than a metre since the 5th century, so the building looks lower than it was. The mosaics show the transition between Roman naturalism and the Byzantine style: the sheep and the deer are lively and cast shadows, while the whole is already a symbolic heavenly space. To protect the mosaics, visitors are let in in small groups for a short time.