Complex of the Basilica of San Severo, Classe

Complex of the Basilica of San Severo, Classe

The year 967: during one of his journeys in Italy, the emperor Otto I decided to stop over in Ravenna. Here there stood a grandiose palace with a long history, occupied from the 5th to at least the mid 8th century: originally an imperial palace, later used by king Theoderic and then by the Byzantine exarchs. We do not know exactly what conditions it was in Otto’s time, but it must no doubt have been at least partly in ruin (Charlemagne had played a decisive role in this, having had many marble elements removed from the Ravenna complex so they could be used for his palace at Aachen). Moreover, in Ravenna power was firmly in the hands of the archbishops, who had their own palace. In any event, Otto decided to stay not right in Ravenna, but nearby: in Classe, in the monastery of San Severo. And here he would preside over some rather important judicial assemblies.
But the site of San Severo boasts a much longer history, which goes very far back in time. The first excavations carried out in the 1960s had already revealed the existence of a Roman villa built before the city of Classe was founded. Now, thanks to the new surveys that have been conducted since 2006 by the University of Bologna (chair of medieval archaeology) in collaboration with Fondazione RavennAntica, we know a great deal more. The villa was erected in the first century A.D. and was a luxury dwelling, with mosaic flooring in the rooms and thermal baths. The complex continued to exist uninterruptedly until the 5th century, when some interiors began falling into ruin and a mausoleum was built for one its owners. The body of the bishop Severus, who died in the 4th century, would be moved to this very site. At the end of the 6th century, the monumental turning point: alongside the mausoleum, the archbishops of Ravenna built an enormous basilica with a nave and two aisles (very similar to the one of Sant’Apollinare in Classe). They moved the relics of Severus there and dedicated the building to him. Classe entered a spiral of crisis toward the middle of the 7th century, when the port began to host dwellings and tombs; the complex of San Severo nonetheless continued to survive even following the city’s demise, also because a monastery was built alongside the church in the 9th century. Otto I went to reside in the monastery and this, precisely, is the big discovery of recent years: the identification and excavation of the complex run first by the Benedictines and later by the Cistercians. It was a typical medieval monastery, structured on three sides around a large cloister (the Late Antique basilica made up the fourth side). The digs have uncovered many buildings, whose functions are clearly identifiable: the chapter house, the refectory, the kitchens… the life of the complex came to end in the 15th century, when it was demolished by inhabitants of Ravenna and Venice; archaeology is bringing it completely back to light, and finally, for the very first time, it is possible to gain detailed insight into the life of a medieval monastic community in the Ravenna area.