For many years, Ravenna has been on my "bucket" list. This city, population 160,000, is 66 miles south of Venice on the Adriatic coast. It contains eight of the 845 cultural World Heritage sites. These churches, baptistries and mausoleums contain what is probably the greatest collection of Byzantine mosaics in the world (since many of Constantinople's are gone.)

I have chosen the Basilica di San Vitale to begin my posting. Ravenna had been the capital of the western Roman empire in the 400s after Constantine had moved the capital to Byzantium/Constantinople.

Construction of the church began in 527 AD when Ravenna was ruled by the invading Ostrogoths. Justinian's army re-conquered it in 576 AD. Most of its mosaics date from the 500s.

I searched and could find no Ravenna postings on UHH, so hopefully these will introduce a fascinating subject to viewers.

Notes: 1. no flash is allowed in most Italian churches. These were shot handheld with ISOs usually in the 20,000 range. The UHH thumbnails leave much to be desired. Please download for a more enjoyable look.
2. The extensive use of gold mosaics makes tuning interesting.