Mausoleum of Theodoric

Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, ruled Italy from Ravenna from 493 until his death in 526. He wanted a tomb like no other, just outside the city walls: he built it around 520 with large blocks of Istrian stone, brought by sea and placed one on top of the other without mortar.

The building has two ten-sided floors. Above, instead of a dome made of bricks, there is a single stone monolith about ten metres wide and weighing, according to estimates, over 230 tonnes. Even today we do not know for certain how they lifted it up there; around the edge twelve handles protrude, perhaps used to manoeuvre it.

On the upper floor there is a basin of red porphyry, the stone of emperors, which according to tradition received the king's body. When the Byzantines took the city, the remains of Theodoric, considered a heretic, were dispersed, and the mausoleum became a church for centuries.

It is one of Ravenna's eight UNESCO monuments. It stands in a park one kilometre from the centre, beyond the railway: from the square you have the best view of the dome, and an external staircase leads to the upper floor.