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 entire history of european integration 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. The Civitas Ravenna was founded centuries BC during the "Villanova culture" age, probably by Umbri people, then occupied by Etruscan people and successively conquered by Celts Senones tribe that gave the name Rasna, used in 89 BC by Romans when included the actual Ravenna into the Romana Res Publica 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 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 archbishop, becouse of its originary christian community. In 408 AD Ravenna became capital of the Western Roman Empire and the following Ostrogoths regna and after the Gothic War and the invasions 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 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 AD the northern Italy was conquered by Charlemagne and Ravenna was included into the Italy Regnum and ceded to the Patrimonium Petri of the Roman Church, so that the city has been a clerical seat until 1796 AD, when Italy was conquered by Napoleon I and included into the Cisalpine Republic, then returned to Church State with the Wien Peace 1815 until was annexed to Kingdom of Italy in 1861 AD with a devolution act.

The city rebirth in modern era after the Second World War happened when Ravenna became a chemical indutrial centre and a principal trading port in Adriatic sea (thanks to the Candiano Canal) and 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 Wordl 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 AD.

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