Classis Ravenna, Museo della Città e del Territorio

Classe was the harbour of Ravenna. Here the Emperor Augustus established one of Rome's two great military fleets, the Classis Praetoria Ravennatis, which patrolled the Adriatic and the East. For centuries it was a real city, with warehouses, streets and basilicas; then the sea retreated and sand covered it.

The museum opened in 2018 inside the former sugar refinery of Classe, an early twentieth-century industrial building restored with large, light-filled spaces. The route runs from prehistory to the Middle Ages and tells how a marshland became the capital of the Western Empire, then of the Gothic kingdom and the Byzantine Exarchate.

There are mosaics, ceramics, coins, sculptures, inscriptions, remains of ships and trade with the Mediterranean, and large reconstructions that show you what the city looked like. It's the right place to understand everything else before visiting the UNESCO monuments.

It is managed by the Fondazione RavennAntica and is combined with the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe with a joint ticket. A short distance away is the area of the Antico Porto di Classe, which can be visited by groups by reservation.