Quadrarco di Braccioforte

The Quadrarco is a garden of sarcophagi beside Dante's tomb in Ravenna's historic quarter. An oratory stood here by the ninth century; the poet's remains were hidden in the adjoining complex during the war.

Why it matters

The Quadrarco is where Ravenna's Dante story was physically defended. An oratory stood here by the ninth century, cited by the Ravenna historian Andrea Agnello, on ground named for a legend of two faithful swearing an oath on the strong arm of Christ. Franciscan friars hid Dante's remains in the adjoining cloister wall in 1519, when a Medici delegation nearly obtained them, and again in 1677; the inscribed box recording the hiding surfaced here in 1865.

What to notice

By the entrance wall stand the Pignatta and Traversari sarcophagi, carved in the fifth or sixth century and later reused by the noble families whose names they carry; three simpler sarcophagi occupy the small garden. A low green mound at the centre marks the wartime hiding place; the remains returned to the mausoleum in December 1945. A bell given by Italian municipalities for the 1921 centenary is associated with the poet's death on 13 September and the tercets of Purgatorio VIII.

Context and history

The garden belonged to the oratory and convent of the Braccioforte, the zona dantesca's spiritual hinge: rediscovery in 1865, the 1921 centenary and wartime protection of the remains all passed through this ground. The name preserves the medieval oath legend rather than a family. The garden forms part of the historic setting associated with Dante's tomb and Ravenna's Dante heritage.