A CITY OF ART UNIQUE IN THE WORLD
	Ravenna probably dates to the second millenium BC. It was the base for the Roman Western Mediterranean fleet during the reign of Emperor Augustus (1st century AD) and was made capital of the Western Roman Empire by Honorius in 402. In the 5th and 6th centuries under the Goths (King Teodoric conquered in 493) and from 540 under the Byzantines the city was enriched with outstanding monuments and buildings. During the rule of the Da Polenta family Ravenna welcomed Dante Alighieri who died there in 1321. The city was then dominated alternately by the Venetians and the Holy See until 1859. Its most important buildings include S. Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, S. Apollinare Nuovo and in Classe, The Mausoleum of Theodoric and the Baptistries. Art treasures from various epochs can be seen in the National and Archiepiscopal Museums, the Classence Library and the Municipal Art Gallery which contains an impressive collection of 15th and 16th century paintings on wood and canvas, chiefly from the Romagna area. Ravenna's city of art tradition however is especially linked to the great, precious mosaics, still intact today, which make its rich complex of 5th and 6th century Byzantine buildings unique in the world. A fascinating historical-artistic heritage, the richest and best preserved testimony of early Christian and Byzantine art in Italy.