Museo Nazionale di Ravenna

The National Museum of Ravenna occupies the former Benedictine monastery beside San Vitale. Its collections connect Roman and early Christian archaeology with medieval painting, ivories and the history of collecting in the city.

Why it matters

Eighteenth-century collections formed by learned monks, particularly the Camaldolese of Classe, contributed to the museum's foundations. Later archaeological discoveries, deposits and gifts expanded that inheritance, giving the institution a chronology broader than Ravenna's best-known mosaic churches alone.

What to notice

Stone inscriptions, sarcophagi and architectural sculpture preserve different aspects of the ancient city. The ivory collection includes Apollo and Daphne and the Murano diptych. Pietro da Rimini's fourteenth-century frescoes from Santa Chiara bring monumental painting into the former refectory. Materials from San Michele in Africisco and a preparatory drawing from the apse of Sant'Apollinare in Classe connect the museum with other religious buildings.

Context and history

The museum became a national institution in the late nineteenth century and transferred to the San Vitale complex in the early twentieth century. Its Renaissance cloisters and former monastic rooms supplied a historic setting for collections formed through several different processes, from antiquarian study to modern archaeology and conservation.