Palazzo della Provincia and Rasponi Crypt.

Palazzo della Provincia and Rasponi Crypt. Hotel near Rasponi Crypt in Ravenna.

Foto:1)side on Piazza S.Francesco, 2)baptismal font, 3)inside the crypt, 4)detail of the mosaic flooring, 5)detail of the ceiling

On this small noble crypt (end of XVIII century) in 1928 the architect Giulio Ulisse Arata erected the new building official site of Provincia's offices.

But the Palazzo della Provincia  keeps other more ancient relics: among them , some fragments of a VI century mosaic flooring from the Basilica of St. Severo in Classe.

The original mosaic pattern, made of lined up intersecting  circles,  is still clear even if the fragments have not been drawn up well.

Acanthus leaves are the circular plain pattern of the floor and their nerves and jagged borders blown out of proportion. In the empty space between the leaves' border there are animals, three-petal flowers and fantasy images. These nice small figures give the mosaics a popular liveliness, somewhere even grotesque.

For mosaic lovers, Rasponi Crypt offers an unique testimony of the way Ravenna's mosaic art was adjusted to the general tendency in the Eastern and African provinces in the Christian world of going over the abstractionism of a late ancient inspiration that prevailed in the Justinian period.

The entrance to the crypt is at the Palazzo della Provincia, side on Piazza San Francesco.

Prof. Gianni Morelli

The pleasure of fine accommodation in the centre of Ravenna: we recommend the Fabbri hotels for a pleasant stay as follows:

The Centrale Byron Hotel, 3-star hotel in the centre of Ravenna, close to the main momuments;

The Bisanzio Hotel, 4-star hotel in the centre of Ravenna, close to the main momuments;

Once you have reached the hotel and parked your car, forget it and walk everywhere, because everything is within walking distance.

The railway station is near our hotels and within walking distance.