Places in Ravenna: The Gothic Community
(- threads, 4 posts)
The Gothic sector of Ravenna: Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Santo Spirito, the Arian Baptistery, Theodoric's Palace, Theodoric's Mausoleum. ...
 The Palace of Theodoric
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WORK IN PROGRESS
Theodoric's royal palace was destroyed over the centuries. The so-called Palace of Theodoric, south of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, [pic] is probably a later building, currently containing fragments of mosaics from the original royal palace. [pic] The foundations of the original palace were discovered by Gherardo Ghirardini (and immediately covered up again) at the beginning of the 20th century, east of the church, where it once stood facing the sea.
Typical structure of a late-Roman villa, containing:
- A central peristilium with porch, garden, an eight-sided fountain and possibly a cruciform chapel.
- "Basilica", rectangular, north of the peristilium: audience hall with an apse. It leads to other rooms, some of them with an apse too.
- "Triclinium ad mare", looking over the sea, maybe the trilobate hall, more or less east of the peristilium (though straight east of it were only the walls and the sea).
- Atrium, south of the peristilium (Via Alberoni - reconstructing the planimetry is impossible)
- Thermae? Living quarters? east of the atrium
- More rooms west of the atrium
- Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, connected with the west side of the palace.
It seems it was fortified, in the style of Gothic palaces in Eastern Europe. We don't know exactly how the Palatium mosaic represented it: a flat front? the opened 3 sides of the peristilium? or even a whole building with the side walls opened towards the front?
Text: Ælfwine Scylding. Background image: Ælfwine Scylding. Other background images: Mix 'n' Match
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Created by: * Aelfwine Scylding, Sep 4, 2006 - 12:26
