When they were established and became widespread, in the first decades of the thirteenth century, the Mendicant Orders reinstated the complex relationship between the Church and municipal cities. This is the case of the Dominicans, who in Forlì were known to promote faith and culture, thanks also to religious and popular leading figures such as Blessed Salomoni and Blessed Marcolino. Their activities were the cornerstones to the large Convent and church, dedicated to the Apostle James – small and simple at first with a three nave hall, three aisles, and two chapels in the apse. The bell tower was already where you see it now. After the death of Blessed Salomoni a chapel dedicated to him was added, close to the northern facade of the hall. Then the church remained a perennial open construction site. At the end of the fifteenth century the hall was renewed and four aisles were added. The original three-part space was modified into one single nave. This was evidence of the ever increasing role of the Dominicans. In the same period the Convent was rebuilt as well. During the Renaissance and Baroque period the church was beautifully adorned with decorations and furniture. The interior changed in appearance but not in structure. In the eighteenth century new construction works commenced, bringing the church to its current condition. The hall was enlarged, the façade withdrawn, a wider and monumental apse was built, and the side chapels were “homogenised”. The church was then opened for worship even during Napoleon’s rule but, in 1867, with the final abolition of the Orders by the Italian State, it was closed, stripped, and turned into military stables. Thus began a period of gradual decline, culminating in the abandonment and collapse of part of the roof and the southern façade in 1978. It was only during the nineties that the Town started the gradual recovery process leading to its full restoration. Today it is part of the Museums of St. Dominique, which also hold the municipal Art Gallery and extraordinary temporary exhibits; the Complex also includes Palazzo Pasquali, the Dominican Monastery, the convent of the Augustinians, and St. Catherine’s hall.

For centuries the Porto di Classe (the Harbour of Classe) was one of the major and most prestigious seaports of the Ancient World: at the end of the first century BC, at emperor Augustus’ bidding, mighty breakwaters were built to allow the ships to enter the harbour, and the imperial fleet was located at Classe to control the entire Eastern Mediterranean sea. Here Apollinare landed from Turkey: he became the first bishop of the city, and precisely in Classe he would be martyrised on July 23, 74 AD, and would later be elected patron saint of Ravenna. In the fifth century – Ravenna had risen to the status of capital in 402 – Classe became an important civitas and was no longer only an harbour, since it played a fundamental role both as a commercial hub and a military stronghold. The fifth century urban plan, with its layout of streets and buildings, was at the centre of the attention of the project “Museo a cielo aperto” (“Open-air Museum”), the first stage of the Archaelogical Park of Classe which covered about 10 thousand square metres of land. The Late Antiquity and Byzantine age were recreated as to highlight the context and scope of that great commercial harbour, placed at the heart of the most relevant trade routes with Africa and, especially after 540, with the Orient. There are storehouses; identifiable connections between the quays and the island at the centre of the harbour channel; the basolo paved road along which wagons travelled, carrying goods to Ravenna and the Empire. Besides, the whole area is scattered with most important findings and monuments, starting with Sant’Apollinare in Classe; but also the Museo della Città e del Territorio, and the ruins of the basilica of San Severo. Thus, starting from the first surveys in 1961 to the excavation campaigns in the 70s (the harbour was identified in 1975), the territory of Ravenna can boast another feature of excellence. Indeed, the long-time endeavour of the Ravennantica Foundation brought on, in 2015, the opening of the archaeological site with an enhancement project signed by architect Daniela Bardeschi, the first step of the Parco Archeologico di Classe (Archaelogical Park of Classe).

What little remains of the old church, built in the fifth century by orders of archbishop Neon, is almost all underground: the original plan is three and a half metres lower than the current street level. Through a window beneath the main altar, you can see the tenth century crypt, an oratory-shaped room, supported by pillars and designed to hold the relics of Bishop Neon. The floor is constantly submerged by water, but you can still see the beautiful mosaic fragments of the original church. The square bell tower, almost 33 metres high, dates back to the ninth century, almost identical to the one of St. John the Evangelist. In his 1923 “Guide to Ravenna”, Corrado Ricci emphasised the quality of the restoration works carried out on the steeple in those years, but complained about the replacement of the “stern and powerfully sounding” seventeenth and eighteenth-century bells by others with a more “shrilling” sound. Renovated and restored several times, the basilica was virtually rebuilt in 1793 by Pietro Zumaglini. Dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul, then named after St. Peter, it took the name of St. Francis in 1261, when it was given in concession to the Franciscans with the surrounding houses, gardens, and porches. The convent friars abandoned it in 1810 and then permanently returned in 1949.
The basilica – with its simple, rustic, and serene façade – is inextricably tied to the funeral of Dante Alighieri, which was probably held in September 15, 1321, in front of the highest city authorities, with Guido Novello da Polenta seated in the front row together with the great poet’s sons, Pietro and Jacopo, and daughter, Sister Beatrice. The fourteenth-century poet, Cino da Pistoia, “master” of Francesco Petrarca, dedicated the poem entitled “Su per la costa, Amor, de l’alto monte” (Along the coast, Love, on the highest mountain) to the event, which ended with these verses:
“…quella savia Ravenna che serba
il tuo tesoro, allegra se ne goda,
ch’è degna per gran loda.”
(“…that wise Ravenna which holds
your treasure, happily she enjoys it,
deigned with great praise”)
When the friars returned to Ravenna in 1949, archbishop Giacomo Lercaro granted their return to “their” basilica, “Dante’s church”. And as the 7th centenary of Dante’s birth drew near, the conditions for a specific “Dantesque” activity were created. This was organised by Father Severino Ragazzini (1920-1986) who also founded the Dante Centre and ran it until his sudden death. With extraordinary passion he strived to create an endeavour “that wouldn’t only last for a hundred years, but would last longer, gaining more extent and importance in time.” For the past fifteen years the Festival has chosen to bring in, under those vaults, liturgies and sacred songs from around the world, thus recovering a tradition that dates back to the second half of the 1600s when, in a nearby convent and in the church “exquisite music” was heard.

The one and only building in town featuring a “war machine” architecture, the mighty Rocca Brancaleone was built by the Venetians between 1457 and 1470, as a striking sign of their domination over Ravenna. The Rocca hides in its foundations the ruins of the church of St. Andrew of the Goths, built by Theodoric not far from where his mausoleum would be erected. However, the “castle” was not meant to defend the city: it was designed as a control tool for Ravenna. It is no coincidence that its walls counted 36 bombers facing the city itself and only 14 pointing the outside. But the fortress would not withstand a more advanced warfare: in 1509, after a month-long siege, it was conquered by the troops of Pope Julius II, who expelled the Venetians from the town. Additionally, during the battle of Ravenna in 1512, the Rocca Brancaleone resisted for barely four days.

The entire complex was owned by the Papal Government from the early sixteenth century for the following three hundred years. Only in 1965, after several changes of ownership, it was bought by the city of Ravenna for 90 million lire (about 46000 Euro). The project envisaged the creation of a large park in the citadel and an open air theatre in the Rocca. Therefore, between controversial restorations and more interesting recoveries, the music entered the walls of the Rocca for the first time on July 30^th 1971, with a festival organized by the “Angelo Mariani” association. The first to walk on the stage was the Philarmonic of the Bulgarian city of Ruse, conducted by Kamen Goleminov. Thus, the fortress became the most qualified and impressive arena of the whole territory of Romagna. On July 26^th, 1974, Ravenna Jazz was born in the Rocca Brancaleone. The festival is the longest-running Italian event featuring Afro-American music, and those first “Days of Jazz” were home to the quintet of Charles Mingus and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. In the Eighties, the baton was passed to the Opera, with productions signed by maestri such as Aldo Rossi and Gae Aulenti. Finally, on July 1^st, 1990, Riccardo Muti raised his conductor’s baton on the podium of La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Swedish Radio Choir. Within the ancient Venetian walls the first movement echoed: Adagio – Allegro spiritoso of the Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, better known as Linzer Symphony. It was the baptism of Ravenna Festival.

When it was founded, at the time of Bishop Peter II (his monogram stands out in the central nave) in the late fifth century, it was located on the bank of the Padenna river. Sant’Agata Maggiore is one of the oldest churches in the city but also one that has undergone major changes over the centuries; nevertheless it still has its own archaic charm. The depth of its original plan is proof of how old the church is, a good two and a half metres “lower” than the other structures in the countryside. On the other hand the bell tower dates back to the sixteenth century. It slightly exceeds the height of the church and is dotted with many small holes. It also has a few single-lancet windows and, at the top, four mullioned windows. It took the place of a four-sided portico, built on a lawn, that covered a cemetery. During the restoration works, carried out between 1913 and 1918 by Giuseppe Gerola, a beautiful prothyrum was added to the façade along with the marble-framed mullioned window placed above it. Inside it has three naves. The basilica floor plan is marked by columns, some of which are topped by sixth-century Corinthian capitals. An old ark, beside the altar of St. Agatha, preserves the ashes of St. Sergius the Martyr and Bishop Agnello. Above the ark there’s a 1546 painting by Luca Longhi depicting St. Agatha between the Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Cecilia. Although Sant’Agata Maggiore has never hosted “shows” it has, proved to be the ideal venue for Sunday Liturgies and those holy music concerts have been part of the Festival’s programme for many years now. A curiosity: documents preserved in the Classense Library describe an exorcism that was successfully carried out in November 1716. Monsignor Evangelista Antonio Coratti, parish priest of Sant’Agata Maggiore, saved the soul of a 12 year-old girl possessed by demons.

This small theatre was built in the last decade of the nineteenth century in the former monastic church of Saint Clare, commissioned in 1250 by Chiara Da Polenta and suppressed by Napoleon’s edict in 1805. The church was decorated with beautiful fourteenth-century Riminese school frescoes. They started peeling off around 1950 and, after long vicissitudes, are now preserved in the National Museum of Ravenna. Like other former places of worship, St. Clare, granted on lease to Baron Pergami della Franchina, in 1823 was turned into a “riding school”. It was a riding school up until 1885 and, for a decade, was also a location for equestrian shows. Purchased by the Town, the building was granted to the Filodrammatica Academy to turn it into a theatre, since the Academy’s original location (the “Bertoldi” in via Alberoni) was no longer available. It was inaugurated on 8 May 1892 with the comedy, “The Deputy from Bombignac” by Alessandro Bisson, and a monologue written by the famous actor from Ravenna, Luigi Rasi. In 1919 the theatre was named after him. For many years it held operetta and chamber music performances, mostly by local companies and artists. Then, after drastic restructuration works in 1959, it remained closed until 1978. When it finally reopened, the Rasi looked more like a movie theatre rather than a real theatre, but the apse, preserved and much appreciated by directors and set designers, remains a rare and precious element of its history. Since 1991 it is managed by Ravenna Teatro-Teatro Stabile di Innovazione, a cultural establishment resulting from the merger of Teatro delle Albe and Compagnia Drammatico Vegetale. It is also the location of student workshops, the famous “Non-Scuola” (Not a School) by Marco Martinelli, and it has devoted significant attention to the cultures of ethnic minorities and other cultural events. It welcomed Ravenna Festival for the first time in 1990, on July 3rd, with the Beethoven Quartet in the late evening of the first edition of the Festival, and has since been one of its main venues.

Consecrated by Archbishop Maximianus between 547 and 548 AD, the Basilica of San Vitale is proof of Ravenna’s importance during the age of Emperor Justinian. An absolute masterpiece of Early Christian and Byzantine art, in 1996 it was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The prestigious American online magazine, Huffington Post, described San Vitale as “one amongst the 19 most important holy places in the world”. The church has an octagonal plan and is formed by two bodies; the inner one is surmounted by a dome supported by eight marble-covered massive pillars. Its architectural values are essentially tied to the chromatic qualities of its mosaics that cover the walls, the presbytery, and the apse, filled with biblical, symbolic, and historic references. The political values of the building are tied to these mosaics as well, with the emperor and empress depicted at the foot of Christ. There are also religious ties in the constant reaffirmation of the truth in Orthodox worship, sanctioning the defeat of Arianism in the city with the end of Theodoric’s government. Still, these are known wonders in every latitude. But also the Basilica’s floors hold many, lesser known, surprises. There’s the simple 8-pointed North Star, repeated multiple times and not only on the floor. Then there’s the so-called “labirinto dell’anima” (labyrinth of the soul). It is embedded in the floor of the presbytery, right in front of the altar; composed of seven spirals, it was once considered a symbol of sin, while passing through the labyrinth represented the way to purification and finding the way out was an act of re-birth. Hence, this is a place of a thousand splendours, where, ever since the eighteenth century, oratorios, sonatas, symphonies and motets resounded and still resound. Then in 1961 the Basilica became the permanent location of the International Organ Music Festival, the first and oldest festival of this kind in Italy. San Vitale has served Ravenna Festival, from the start, as a fundamental reference point within a journey tied to spirituality.

The monument of the ancient Franciscan Cloisters is a corner of refined beauty and silence located in the city’s historic centre, and a place whose symbolic and moral value even surpasses its architectural and artistic qualities, since it brings to mind the period when Dante Alighieri stayed in the city. It was part of the convent built by the Franciscans in 1261 near the church with the same name. The buildings which can be admired today are not the original ones. In fact, they date back to the fifteenth century and bear the mark of the works carried out in the seventeenth century. The entire “Dantesque” area then took on a more romantic aspect between 1921 and 1932, with the restoration of the Basilica of St. Francis, the Quadrarco of Braccioforte and Dante’s Tomb, a project signed by architect Giulio Ulisse Arata (who also designed the project for the Province Building). The first cloister was dedicated to Dante, and remained with the friars until 1810. The ground floor is a magnificent loggia embellished by white marble columns with Doric style capitals. In the middle of the loggia there’s a well decorated with sculptures.  The second floor, known as “della Cassa” has an irregular shape owing to the different number of arches of the loggia on the ground floor. The columns are made of Istrian stone, red Verona marble and Greek marble. On the first floor there’s a smaller loggia supported by brick pillars with terracotta capitals. In the middle there’s an Istrian stone puteal with two bas-relief amphorae and coats of arms, where there is an eagle with the motto “Pietra Exaltavit Me.” Both cloisters were purchased in 2001 by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, which restored and enhanced them. In the cloister a plaque commemorates the spot where in 1519 the monks made a hole to get to the ancient sarcophagus where Dante’s remains were located and removed them so that they wouldn’t be taken by the Florentines. Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had indeed granted them to Florence, after several requests for restitution had been rejected. The bones were found only in 1865, not far from the Quadrarco of Braccioforte. Over the years these havens of peace have hosted precious recitals and readings dedicated to Dante Alighieri.

From “sulphur warehouse”, in the centre of a major industrial complex which also included a refinery, to archaeological industrial ruin. Then the revival and transformation into a multi-purpose hall for shows and small theatre productions, conferences and conventions. This is the path traced by the complex on the right bank of the Candiano river, built in 1887 for Vito Almagià’s establishment, designed by Giuseppe Castellucci. The factory was in business for nearly a century, then everything came to a stop. Pesticides and other derivates, produced after World War II, were no longer in use in Agriculture. But the building was architecturally significant: the layout resembles that of a basilica with a central nave, two side naves, and a colonnade on each of the two shorter sides. The supporting structure is made entirely of brickwork, both inside and outside. Leaving it in ruins did not make any sense. Therefore the area was included in the urban redevelopment plan of the City’s Harbour. Meanwhile, Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazione grasped its potential and, like it has done before and continues to do for other areas of the city, decided to take advantage of it. Therefore, in 1996, Ravenna Festival chose it as the venue for the theatrical opera debut of “All’Inferno!” (To Hell!): the smell of sulphur that still permeated the bricks of the walls was a great asset for the show, written and directed by Marco Martinelli. Three years later the City Council bought the former warehouse, restructuring and redeveloping it. Today it can accommodate up to 300 viewers, and is a beautiful and charming area. It is a reference point for modern dance events, animation theatre, experimental theatre, and sometimes seems to regain the “alchemical” (chemical) character of its origins, proposing cultural “experiments”.

The Benedictine monks arrived in San Vitale around the tenth century; between the end of the fifteenth and eighteenth they expanded the complex, using workers from Milan, Padua and Venice. The first cloister was built during the Renaissance period, followed in 1562 by the “Novo Chiostro” (new cloister), designed by Andrea da Valle; then the third, or “chiostro dell’orto” (garden cloister) was completed. At the end of the eighteenth century, however, the French arrived and, with the suppression of the monastic orders officially decreed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805, the monastery around the church was transformed into military barracks. Between 1913 and 1914, on the threshold of World War I, the Byzantine Museum, changed into “National” (which was located at Classense Library), was transferred into those buildings. Therefore places where the Benedictine monks had led their lives of study, prayer, and work, became the ideal “containers” for antique art collections and archaeological relics. The entire Museum preserves lapidary collections, bronze items and plates, transennas, fabrics, ivories, ceramics, an antique weapons room, the sinopia room, and icons. In the entire complex the most valuable room is the Refectory; the fourteenth-century frescoes that once decorated the Church of Saint Clare (now Rasi theatre) are preserved inside it. As of 1956 the rib vaults of the ancient religious place were on exhibit, followed by the placing of the frescoes on the walls. The painted surfaces were applied to a support consisting of two calico cloths, reinforced by two hemp cloths, stretched out on aluminium frames. The frescoes are attributed to Pietro da Rimini and his school, whose style was influenced by Giotto’s work. Upon entering, the visitor is immediately captivated by such an elegant beauty. Music completes the astonishment: the prestigious refectory has hosted the Festival since 1991. In fact, for years the Accademia Bizantina ensemble has chosen this place for their Sunday concerts.