Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo

Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo tickets: which one to buy

The basilica is one of the five monuments on the Ravenna combined ticket and cannot be bought separately. It stands on Via di Roma in the middle of the town, five minutes from the main square, and is usually the least crowded of the five, partly because it is a long rectangular church rather than a jewel box and takes visitors comfortably. Audio guides are available at the entrance. Guided tours of the mosaic circuit include it and cost several times the ticket;

a guide matters here more than anywhere, because the mosaics were deliberately altered for religious reasons and half the interest lies in what was removed. Nothing needs booking. The tenth-century round campanile beside the church is not open. The church stands on the street the Ostrogothic palace once fronted, and an excavated section of that palace is visible a short walk away.

Visiting Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo: what to see

Theodoric the Great built this as the palace chapel of his Arian court around 504 and dedicated it to Christ the Redeemer. When Justinian reconquered Ravenna, the Arian imagery was purged: along the south wall a mosaic of Theodoric's palace still shows the arcade, but the figures of the king and his courtiers who once stood between the columns were chiselled out and replaced with curtains, leaving disembodied hands still visible on several pillars. Above run two processions in gold, twenty-two virgins on one side and twenty-six martyrs on the other, moving towards the Virgin and Christ, with the three Magi in trousers and Phrygian caps at the head of the female procession.

Higher still is a cycle of the life of Christ, the oldest surviving narrative sequence of its kind. The processions of saints move towards the altar along both walls and were laid by Byzantine workshops after 561, replacing the earlier Arian scheme that had shown Theodoric's court. Twenty-six martyrs process from the palace of Theodoric towards Christ enthroned, and twenty-two virgins from the port of Classe towards the Virgin, each figure named above its head.

Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from mid-morning to early evening with shorter winter hours. The mosaics run along the upper walls of the nave and are lit from the clerestory, so bright weather helps; the processions read best in the morning when the light is on the north wall. Binoculars are useful. Ravenna is walkable and the five monuments fit into one day, with this one usually done first or last.

Photography without flash is allowed. Dress is informal. Allow thirty minutes. Sant'Apollinare in Classe, five kilometres out of town with its own ticket and a bus every half hour, has the finest apse mosaic of all and is skipped by most day visitors. A combined bus and entry ticket for Sant'Apollinare in Classe is sold at the tourist office and is the easiest way to add the fifth-century basilica outside town.