XXI.-On the Byzantine Origin of the Church of St. Vitalis at Ravenna, with Remarks on other Churches in that City. By EDWIN FRESHFIELD, Esq. F.S.A.

Read February 24, 1876.

It is hardly necessary to describe the situation of the town of Ravenna. Its ancient fortress occupied a strong position, resting on the sea towards the east and south, and, with an ample harbour for those days, it could not be blockaded by any army not possessing also a fleet. Lying out of the beaten track, and thus defended by the sea, Ravenna, at a time when Western Europe was convulsed with the commotions dependent upon the extinction of the Western Empire, was contentedly secure under the protection of the yet powerful empire of Constantinople.

In the sixth and seventh centuries there, at least, was one comparatively peaceful spot in Italy.

The result is the erection of a series of Christian churches in the town of an age and style to which there is nothing comparable in any other part of Western Europe, and these decorated in a manner superior to any other buildings of that age out of Constantinople itself.

It is of one of these buildings, viz. the church of St. Vitalis, that I propose to say a few words.

The church of St. Vitalis is one of the most remarkable buildings in Italy. It is fortunate that the date of it and the name of the builder are well known, and inferentially some of the circumstances in which the church was erected. I propose in the first place to describe the building, and then to give something of an historical account of it, next to give some of the theories respecting it, and, lastly, my own.

The church of St. Vitalis is throughout octagonal in shape. (See plan, Plate XXXIV.") It consists of an internal octagon supported by eight piers, surmounted by a round dome with Byzantine pendentives. There is an octagonal aisle round the central octagon, which is inclosed by an octagonal wall forming

a This plan and that of the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus in the same plate have been adapted from Baron Hubsch's work, Monuments de l'Architecture Chrétienne. Paris, 1866.

the outside wall of the church. Between each of the piers, except the two easternmost, there is a semicircular apse, the dome-shaped covering of which is supported by the piers and by two pillars between each pier. The space between the two easternmost piers is open, and forms with a large eastern apse a deep chancel. (See Plate XXXV.) The aisle does not open into the chancel, but is screened from it by a wall in which are opened three small arches, each arch being supported by two small pillars. There was a large and curious porch at the west end, now, however, in part destroyed, and quite inaccessible owing to a large building, formerly part of the monastery but now used as a barrack, having been erected against it. It opened, however, into the church with a triplet of arches, as in the church now called the Khodsha Mustafa Pasha Djamessi at Constantinople, and I think it opened on two faces. Over the octagonal aisle is a large women's gallery exactly similar in plan to the aisle below, and terminating at the north and south-eastern ends with three arches opening into the chancel, corresponding to the arches in the screen below. On each side of the great eastern apse there are two small buildings containing staircases leading up to the women's gallery, and adjoining them again are two later circular buildings, which I think must have been intended as the foundation of two of the tall circular towers for which Ravenna is celebrated, but these were never completed. There are two at either end of the porch which have been partially completed, but none of them rise to the height of many of the other circular towers in the town.

The building is constructed entirely of brick-the bricks are thin-bearing a great resemblance to the ordinary Roman brick. The windows were all roundheaded, but have in some instances been modernised.

The dome, which is supported upon the eight piers by means of Byzantine pendentives, is small, so small that the pendentives are hardly apparent, but they exist nevertheless. The dome is remarkable for having been built entirely of pots placed horizontally, the end of each pot being inserted into the mouth of the pot to which it is joined. This construction was used for lightness-but either the architect doubted the durability of his building or did not know how to coat the outside of a dome, and therefore made it only a ceiling. It is covered with a wooden roof which is tiled, and the aisles are covered in the same manner.

The piers in the octagon body of the church up to the women's gallery are ornamented with marble cut into slabs as in Santa Sophia and other well-known Byzantine examples. It would appear as if the dome had been originally lined with mosaic. This has now been removed and is replaced by some very vile painting. The whole of the chancel is, however, covered with mosaics which are

still perfect, and form the most important of the extraordinary series still remaining in Ravenna.

The pavement was originally of tessellated work, a white ground with figures, birds, and flowers; some portion of it still remains, but owing to the rising of the bed of the river the water level has also risen, and the floor of the church has been raised to a corresponding degree; and, although the Italian Government has attempted to do so, it has been found impossible to uncover the original floor. The present floor is about two feet above the original level.

The monastery attached to the church having been dissolved by the Italian Government, the church is almost disused, but is preserved as a national monument. It has been frightfully maltreated, and shows some sign of decay, chiefly through damp, but it is otherwise now well cared for, and is less likely to suffer than it was under the hands of its former owners. In many places pieces of the mosaics have been removed by the custodians for sale to visitors, and our attendant, an old woman, lamented those good days which were now passed. The building being now under the superintendence of a Government official, this robbery is put an end to.

The pillars of the building are mostly of single blocks of grey marble, selected with great care, and apparently cut for the church, and not taken from a more ancient building. The capitals of the pillars are of different orders. The capitals in the women's gallery, with the exception of those opening into the eastern apse, are of foliage in high relief. The capitals of the lower story of the octagon, and those in both stories of the screen separating the eastern apse from the aisle, are all Byzantine; the latter are of a particularly beautiful description. The ornaments upon all these are in low relief. The arches are not supported directly upon the capitals, but there is a sort of abacus above them called, I observe, by M. Texier, a "dosseret."

These abaci are ornamented in some instances with a cross, and in other instances with remarkable monograms, which have formed the subject of some antiquarian discussion. The balustrade of the women's gallery has unfortunately been modernised, and there is no trace of the original construction.

The cupola of the church is surmounted by a bronze cross, which is believed to be coeval with the building.

In the chancel are, with many other subjects, the two celebrated mosaic groups of Justinian and Theodora. The group on the north represents the Emperor Justinian inside a church, accompanied by his nobles and guard, delivering a basin with offerings to the Bishop Maximianus, who holds a cross and