RAVENNA CIVITAS

Ravenna has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

Ravenna is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. It was founded centuries B.C. during the 'Villanova culture' age probably by Umbri people, then occupied by Etruscan people and successively conquered by the Celts Senones tribe that gave it the name Rasna, used in 89 B.C. by Romans when included the Civitas Ravenna into the Roman Res Public as a federated town, built on piles over a series of small islands in the marshy lagoon of the Po river delta. They established a new Classis for the Roman fleet in the Adriatic sea, that made Ravenna the central seaport, in Middle Age rival to the Republic of Venice. Thanks to drainage operas, the inhabitants and families of the Latin veterans and soldiers received large pieces of the public land (Ager Romanus) to share and Ravenna became a main strategic point on the ancient roman Sucinaria way connecting Rimini to Aquileia, then Rome to the northern castras in Noricum and Eastern Europe.

Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Ravenna was included into the Regio VIII Emilia of the Italiae province, while with the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Ravenna became part of the imperial Italiae Diocesis and obtained the rank of archibishopric, cause of its originary christian community. In 408 A.D. Ravenna became capital of the Western Roman Empire and of the following Regna Ostrogothorum and, after the Greek-Gothic War and the invasion of Lombards, Ravenna became capital of the Exarchate of Ravenna that could govern all the byzantine possessions in Italy and fight against the Lombards. In that period were built the major monuments of the city such as: the Orthodox Baptistery, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Arian Baptistery, the Archiepiscopal Chapel, the Sant'Apollinare Nuovo church, the Mausoleum of king Theodoric and the Basilicas of San Vitale and of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, the church of San Giovanni Evangelista erected by Galla Placidia and the church of the Spirito Santo, that was originally the Arian cathedral in town.

In late VIII century A.D. northern Italy was conquered by Charlemagne and Ravenna was included in the Regnum Italiae and incorporated into the Patrimonium Petri of the Roman Church, so that the city has been a clerical seat until 1796 A.D., when Italy was conquered by Napoleon I and included into the Cisalpine Republic, then returned to the Church State with the Wien Peace (1815 A.D.) until was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 A.D. with a devolution act.

The city of Ravenna reborn in modern era after the Second World War, when Ravenna became a chemical indutrial centre and a principal trading port in the Adriatic sea (thanks to the Candiano Canal and the Ravenna cruise port). What to see in Ravenna? It is one of the most famous touristic city of the world, known for the high concentration of mosaics almost detained into the 'Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna' enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage. Today Ravenna is a medium size city in the centre of the Italian Republic part of the Emilia-Romagna region, whose patron of is St. Apollinaris the first bishop and founder of the ancient christian community in I century A.D.. Who was buried in Ravenna? The ancient imperial city is famous for the mausoleums of the roman emperess Galla Placidia, of the goth king Theodoricus I and the poet Dante Alighieri.

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