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Ravenna is a City in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy . The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna once served as the seat of the Roman Empire and later the Ostrogothic kingdom. It is presently the capital of the Province Of Ravenna . HISTORY Early history The origins of Ravenna are uncertain. The first settlement is variously attributed to the Tyrrhenian s, the Thessalians , or the Umbrian s. Ravenna consisted of houses built on piles on a series of small islands in a marshy lagoon - a situation similar to Venice several centuries later. The Romans ignored it during their conquest of the Po River Delta, but later accepted it as a federated town into the Roman Republic in 89 BC . In 49 BC , it was the location where Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing the Rubicon . Later, after his battle against Mark Anthony in 45 BC , Emperor Augustus founded the military harbor of Classe. This harbor, protected at first by its own walls was an important station of the Roman Imperial Fleet . Nowadays the city is landlocked, but Ravenna remained an important Seaport on the Adriatic until the early Middle Ages . During the German campaigns, Thusnelda , widow of Arminius , and Marbod , King of the Marcomanni , were confined at Ravenna. Ravenna greatly prospered under Roman rule. Emperor . However, in 409 , King Alaric of the Visigoths simply bypassed Ravenna, and went on to sack Rome and to take Galla Placidia , daughter of Emperor Theodosius I , hostage. After many vicissitudes, Galla Placidia returned to Ravenna with her son, Emperor Valentinian III and the support of her uncle Theodosius II . Ravenna enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace, during which time the Christian religion flourished, and the city gained its most famous monuments, both secular (demolished) and Christian (largely preserved). In 476, the Western Roman Empire fell. Eastern Emperor Zeno sent Ostrogoth King Theodoric The Great to re-take the Italian peninsula. After the Battle Of Verona , Odoacer retreated to Ravenna, where he withstood a siege of three years by Theodoric, until the taking of Rimini deprived Ravenna of supplies. After Theodoric slew Odoacer, Ravenna was the capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy. After 493 , Theodoric employed Roman architects for secular and religious structures, including the lost palace near San Apollinare Nuovo; the "Palazzo di Teodorico" was an outbuilding. Theodoric and his followers were Arians , but co-existed peacefully with the Latins. Theodoric died in 526 and was succeeded by his daughter Amalasunta , who was killed in 535. However, Byzantine Emperor Justinian I was fanatically orthodox, and opposed both Ostrogoth rule and the Arian cult. In 535 AD he invaded Italy and in 540 conquered Ravenna. Ravenna became the seat of Byzantine government in Italy. Exarchate of Ravenna See Also: Exarchate of Ravenna Following the conquests of Belisarius for the Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century, Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine governor of Italy, the Exarch , and was known as the Exarchate Of Ravenna . It was at this time that the Ravenna Cosmography was written. Medieval and Modern history The King Pepin of France attacked the Lombards under orders of Pope Stephen II . Ravenna then became territory of the Papal States in 784 . In return, Pope Adrian I authorized King Charlemagne to take away anything from Ravenna that he liked. Charlemagne made three looting expeditions to Ravenna, removing a vast quantity of Roman columns, mosaics, statues and other portable items to enrich his capital of Aachen . Under Papal rule, the Archbishop of Ravenna enjoyed Autocephaly from the Roman Church - a privilege obtained under Byzantine rule. Due to donations by the Ottonian emperors, the archbishop of Ravenna was the richest in Italy after the Papacy, and was thus successfully able to challenge the temporal authority of the Pope on occasion. At the end of the 12th century, with the rise of the free cities, Ravenna lost its . In 1512, during the Holy League wars, Ravenna was sacked by the French. From 1441-1509, Ravenna was ruled by Venice . After the Venetian withdrawal, Ravenna was again ruled by legates of the Pope as one of the Papal States . The city was damaged in a tremendous flood in May 1636. Over the next 3 centuries, a network of canals diverted nearby rivers and drained nearby swamps, thus reducing the possibility of flooding and creating a large belt of agricultural land around the city. Ravenna and the surrounding Romagna area became part of the Kingdom Of Italy in 1861 . MAIN SIGHTS Eight early Christian monuments of Ravenna are inscribed on the World Heritage List . These are
Other tourist attractions include:
TRANSPORTATION Ravenna has an important commercial and tourist port. By road, it can be reached through from the highway hub of Bologna or, from Venice , with State Road 309 "Romea". From Rome the fastest connections is the E45 International Road; the other main connection to southern Italy is the State Street 16 "Adriatica". The railroad station has connections to Bologna , Venice , Verona and Rimini . The nearest airports are those of Forlì and Bologna . EXTERNAL LINKS
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