Ravenna is a city of history, numerous monuments that stand in silent testimony of its turbulent past as well as its fame and glory as the capital city of many an empire and kingdom. The main attractions of Ravenna are certainly its churches and mosaics that all date back to the 5th and 6th century and the early Christian societies in Europe. The scale and splendour of colorful Byzantine mosaics, their historical significance as well as monuments that date back to the Ostrogoths were even recognized by UNESCO who included eight sites in this small city on their World Heritage list. Ravenna is a city which lets its visitors to embark on a journey through history and especially through the history of Byzantine, from the civilization of which only but a faint remnant has survived throughout the world.
Ravenna is a relatively small city in eastern Italy, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The whole province of which Ravenna is the capital city is home to around 160,000 people. To some, its modern look hides glorious days of the past in which Ravenna played a very important role in this part of the world. The origins and the foundations of the city are unknown today. It is known that some kind of settlement existed before the time of the Roman Empire and that during the whole period of ancient history the settlement was surrounded by marshy terrain, easily approachable only by sea. This crucial characteristic made Ravenna an attractive location for many rulers, because it was believed that it cannot be easily concurred due to the specific terrain. The First Roman Imperator, Augustus, undertook a large scale building project which would allow Ravenna to hold the imperial fleet in charge of controlling the Eastern Mediterranean sea. According to some sources, Ravenna’s port held 10,000 sailors in charge of this fleet. In 285AD, Roman Imperator Diocletian realized that Roman Empire had grown too large to be governed by only one man. Therefore, he divided the empire into two halves, taking the Eastern Roman Empire and leaving a Western Roman Empire to one of his generals who followed his orders.
