Ravenna: a journey through ancient walls and monumental gates

The itinerary starts from Porta Adriana, probably the most beautiful and most important ancient gate in Ravenna. 

Built in the 10th century, moved several times and embellished in the 16th century with marble from the Roman Porta Aurea, it has always marked one of the main entrances to the city walls and the ideal starting point of any road leading to Emilia. 

Fun facts

• Behind it is Via Cavour, one of the landmark streets of the city's historical centre – the street where people go strolling and shopping. Why is it not straight? Its slightly curved, sloping shape is due to the fact that a waterway once flowed here, later transformed into a walkway for noble people.
• Ravenna was once like a small Venice – much of its historical centre was crossed by canals and waterways that serves as communication routes, just as in the Serenissima. Even today, the irregular layout of the city and the names of the places testify to this ancient water network.
• Next to it are the remains of Porta Teguriense, dating back to the 5th/6th century (and recently renovated), so called because it was located along the course of the Tegurio river (now diverted and known as Lamone) that once lapped what had been the main entrance to the monumental area of the city for centuries.

Tips

A short distance from this portion of the ancient Byzantine city walls is one of Italy's most important archaeological finds of recent decades – the Domus of the Stone Carpets.

Located a few metres below the road surface, this complex of the Byzantine-era, dating back to the 5th-6th century, allows you to imagine what Ravenna must have been like at the turn of the Empire and the Exarchate. 

Particularly fascinating are the floor mosaics, including the very rare depiction called "Dance of the Genes of the Four Seasons".

Continuing along the walls in a clockwise direction, passing through Via Don Minzoni (where it is possible to see the remains of another defensive tower inside a private garden), one can go straight in Stradello Augusto Bartolotti and pass Giardino Umberto Pinzauti, until Via S. Alberto. On the left is Porta Serrata (lit. closed), one of the most mysterious and "cursed" gates in Ravenna. 

The main access route from the northern side, from Ferrara and Veneto, this gate owes its name to the events that saw it closed for a long time after the expulsion of the Da Polenta family, powerful local lords, by the Venetians in the 15th century. 

Reworked several times, it was moved in order to put it in line with what is now the very long Via di Roma. 

Fun facts

• It was closed again in the 17th century, after a partial collapse occurred during a local celebration.
• Still visible on the half-columns on the sides is the coat of arms of Ravenna (with the maritime pine tree and two rampant lions) and an inscription that reads "Renovata Antiquitas" (lit. the ancient restored).

Tips

Following Via Venezia, then Via Falier (northern branch) you get to Via Giuseppe Miniagio, from which you can catch a glimpse of the next step of your itinerary. 

Just before the steps leading onto Via Rocca Brancaleone, on the right, in the garden of a private house, it is possible to see remains of a minor gate. It is called veneziana because it was adjacent to the portion of the walls wanted by the Doge, which once perhaps served as a secondary passage to a small port that must have been located not far away.

At the end of Via Venezia is the imposing Rocca Brancaleone fortress, erected by the Serenissima in the mid-15th century as Ravenna's main defensive bastion. 

Part of a complex process of reorganisation of the city, the great fortress was intended to serve as a defensive bulwark and ideal shelter for an escape route to the motherland.

It was also the place where two major battles between papal, French and Ferrara troops took place in the 16th century – the first in 1509, when the Pope's armies managed, after a long siege, to breach and enter the city, then held by the French under Louis XII.

The second, some years later, in a sort of revenge, in which the troops of the anti-papal coalition, mainly French and Ferrarese, retook Ravenna also thanks to the massive use – for the first time in history on the Italian peninsula – of war artillery. 

In this battle, which would become the famous Battle of Ravenna in 1512, Europe's best cavalry and most feared infantry, led by the likes of Marcantonio Colonna, Alfonso I d'Este and Gaston de Foix, faced off.

Today, the Rocca is no longer a military garrison but, on the contrary, a place of recreation and gathering, with refreshment points and a lush park. A major restoration project will soon see it renovated in the event area, located in the keep, transforming it into one of the largest open-air arenas in Romagna for cinema, music and theatre events.

Tips

Continuing along Via Rocca Brancaleone you get to Viale Farini, and right in front of you is the charming Basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista.

This religious building was built at the behest of Empress Galla Placidia, depicted on the entrance portal, as a devout thanksgiving for having escaped a shipwreck on the coast of the nearby Adriatic Sea.

The basilica was at the core of various events and was heavily bombed during the war. Today, it is still possible to see, along the walls, remains of mosaic pavements dating back to the 13th century, depicting the courts of the time, other than fantastic animals and myths.

Walking up Viale Farini towards the station and then taking Viale Santi Baldini, you will flank a long stretch of walls, including some buttresses located in private houses and apartment buildings.

After passing the public gardens, you will reach Porta Nuova, or Panphili, at the opposite end of Via di Roma from Porta Serrata. 

Among the most beautiful ones in Ravenna, this gate – one of the dearest to its citizens – has always had two names. Rebuilt at the end of the 16th century, it became and remained Nuova (lit. new) for the people of Ravenna, while its location adjacent to the Pamphilio canal, wanted by Cardinal Donghi to connect the old port and the city, earned its second name, which however not many people use. 

Fun facts

• It is said that its renovation may have been designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. 
• On 4th December 1944, allied troops entered through its gate and, together with the partisans, they liberated the city from the Nazi-fascist domination. 
• In the past century, it was the starting and arrival point for trams to and from Forlì.
• A short distance away, in Via Zagarelli alle Mura, is the house of the Polentani family, one of the oldest in Ravenna, which a local tradition identifies as the birthplace of the famous Francesca Da Polenta, daughter of Guido Minore, whose tragic adulterous love affair with Paolo Malatesta is narrated by Dante in the 5th canto of Inferno.

Tips

In front of Porta Nuova are the charming public gardens, a true green oasis in the historical centre, a perfect place for a refreshment stop or a simple moment of relaxation. 

On the western side of the gardens is the Loggetta Lombardesca, home to the MAR - Ravenna Art Museum. Other than temporary exhibitions of Italian and international artists, it hosts a unique collection of modern and contemporary mosaics, as well as a precious art gallery.

Past Via Zagarelli alle Mura and Via de Tomai, following Via Bastione, you come to Via Circonvallazione al Molino to begin the last section of the itinerary. 

This winding street was once a watercourse, on which – as the name itself recalls – a very important mill stood. Today, it is one of the main streets of the historical centre and is flanked by the longest portion of Roman walls built by Emperor Valentinian III in the 5th century, emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 425 to 455, who was born in Ravenna and the son of Galla Placidia. 

Along this well preserved portion of walls, which once reached nearly 10 metres of height, it is possible to identify the various phases of expansion of the structure, with some merlons later walled in and the different layers of bricks. At the end of this portion of the wall are the remains of what was once surely Ravenna's most spectacular gate, Port'Aurea.

Located at the beginning of what must have been the Roman decumanus, this gateway was not only one of the main access routes, but was conceived as a true triumphal arch. Decorated with marbles, inlay works and mirrors, it overlooked the remittance dock of the massive fleet of the Adriatic, one of the largest naval fleets in the Empire. 

In the area where today there is the civil hospital, at the end of Via Nigrisoli, there was a huge water basin, connected to the sea by narrow canals that granted, with the wise exploitation of the tides, an excellent defence and a quick way to connect to the rest of the region. 

Proceeding all the way to the end of the street, you will encounter the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Torrione, a small religious building built on the remains of a Venetian tower. Turning into Via Fiume Abbandonato (once again a reference to an ancient waterway), you can walk on another important stretch of walls and return toward Porta Adriana, coming to the end of this ideal loop through 23 centuries of history.