Description of the attraction
The Archbishop's Chapel is one of the oldest churches in Ravenna, built in the late 5th - early 6th centuries by order of Emperor Theodoric on the first floor of the episcopal palace. It is the smallest of the famous buildings in Ravenna, decorated with mosaics. Dedicated to the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, in 1996 the chapel was included in the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites.
The Archbishop's Chapel is shaped like a Greek cross, the eastern end of which ends with an apse. In front of the entrance there is a rectangular narthex, the vault of which is decorated with mosaic white lilies, roses and colorful birds. Also, the mosaic adorns the lunette above the entrance to the chapel - here you can see the young Christ the warrior in Roman armor. In the apse, there is another mosaic with the image of a cross against the background of the starry sky. On the vault, the monogram of Christ and the symbols of the evangelists are painted. It is believed that such a frequent depiction of Christ speaks of the desire of the customer of the chapel to emphasize the divine nature of Jesus, which was rejected by the Goths-Arians.
Not all original mosaics have survived to this day - some of them were covered with Luca Longhi's tempera painting in the 16th century. In 1914, the chapel was restored and the entrance was altered. Today, inside it you can see the silver cross of the local Archbishop Agnellus with medallions from the 6th and 16th centuries.
The Archbishop's Chapel is today the only surviving early Christian private chapel in Europe.
