Basilica of San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale tickets: which one to buy

San Vitale is the anchor of the Ravenna combined ticket, which also covers the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in the same grounds, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Neonian Baptistery and the Archbishop's Chapel; there is no separate entry and the five-site ticket is the only sensible purchase. From March to mid-June a small supplement is charged for Galla Placidia and entry there is timed to a few minutes, because the tiny building cannot take the numbers.

The ticket lasts a week. Guided tours cost several times that and are worth it here, because the mosaics are a political argument between Justinian's court and the Ostrogothic city it had just conquered. Audio guides are available. Numbers are managed at the door and short queues form in the middle of the day. The ticket office is in a modern building beside the entrance and sells the five-monument card for everyone in the group at once.

Visiting Basilica of San Vitale: what to see

Bishop Ecclesius began the church in 526 under Ostrogothic rule and Bishop Maximian finished it in 547, after Justinian's reconquest; a banker named Julius Argentarius paid 26,000 gold solidi for it. The plan is octagonal, an eastern form rather than a western basilica, with two storeys of arcades and a dome of hollow clay pots that made it light enough to build without buttressing.

The mosaics of the presbytery are among the most studied images of late antiquity: Christ enthroned on a blue globe, the sacrifices of Abel and Melchizedek, and on the side walls the two panels everyone comes for, Justinian with his court and Bishop Maximian on one side and the Empress Theodora with her ladies on the other, both holding offerings, both wearing crowns of pearls, and neither of them ever having set foot in Ravenna. The floor is a maze of inlaid marble laid in the sixteenth century, and a labyrinth pattern near the altar is walked by visitors as a modern devotion rather than a medieval one.

Basilica of San Vitale opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from mid-morning to early evening with shorter hours from November to February. The mosaics are lit by daylight through alabaster and glass windows, so a bright day shows them at their best, and the middle of the day is when the presbytery glows. Galla Placidia next door, with its deep blue starred vault, is the other essential and its timed slots are short.

Ravenna is not crowded by Italian standards, though school groups arrive in spring. Photography without flash is allowed. Dress code is applied. Allow an hour here and a full day for all five monuments, which are within a fifteen-minute walk of each other. Galla Placidia is in the same enclosure and its timed entry is checked separately, so leave a gap between the two.