Basilica di San Vitale

San Vitale is the reason many travellers come to Ravenna at all. Begun around 526 under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric's last years and finished in 547 after the Byzantine reconquest, it is an octagonal church unlike anything else in Western Europe: a double-shell plan of eight piers and curved galleries rising to a central dome, with light falling through tall windows onto every surface. The brickwork outside is plain, almost austere, which makes the interior hit harder. Walk through the door and the walls, vaults and apse are covered in glass and gold tesserae, in scenes that mix Old Testament stories, vine scrolls, peacocks and birds with Christ enthroned on a blue globe in the apse. The scale is human rather than monumental, so you can stand close enough to see individual tiles set at slightly different angles to catch the light, a trick the mosaicists used to make gold shimmer as visitors move.

The famous panels sit on either side of the apse. On one wall, Emperor Justinian stands holding a gold paten, flanked by Bishop Maximian, court dignitaries and soldiers carrying a shield marked with the Chi-Rho; opposite, Empress Theodora holds a gold chalice, her ladies in waiting and a eunuch chamberlain beside her, her robe hem embroidered with the three Magi. Neither ruler ever visited Ravenna, yet the pair appear as donors, a piece of imperial image-making aimed at a conquered Italy.

Do not rush past the rest of the building. The sanctuary vault is a riot of green foliage, fruit and animals around a central lamb, and the two lunette scenes of Abraham's hospitality and the sacrifice of Isaac are some of the earliest large-scale narrative mosaics in the city. The floor has patches of original marble paving including a small labyrinth, and the capitals carry the deep lace-like carving typical of the era. Many visitors go in thinking of it as a ten minute stop for the Justinian panel and stay for an hour.

San Vitale stands beside the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and the Archiepiscopal Museum in a quiet garden complex a few minutes' walk from the main square, and entry is bundled into the combined ticket for the city's mosaic monuments. A pass that covers several sites in one go is the practical choice, since San Vitale alone takes most visitors well over half an hour once you add the apse and the galleries. Guided walking tours add useful context on who the figures are and how the mosaics were made, but the building rewards a slow self-guided visit too, particularly in the early morning when the tour groups have not arrived and the light moves across the apse.