Baptistry of Ariens

The Baptistry of the Ariens , with Ravenne (in Italy), was built by the king of the Ostrogoths, Théodoric Amale with the turning Des. Indeed, the Goths, like other Germanic people, had embraced Christianity in the form preached by Arius and considered as heretic following the first oecumenical Concile S. The baptistry was to thus make it possible Ariens to have their own place, just like the autochtones for which was reserved the Baptistère of Orthodoxe the.

This building is contemporary Basilique Sant' Apollinare nuovo. Into 565, after the judgment of the Arianisme, it was converted into catholic oratory under the invocation of holy Marie. A Greek monastery was built at side, at the time of the Exarchat de Ravenne, and the baptistry was placed under the invocation of holy Marie de Cosmedin. About the year 1700, the building became private property then in 1914, it was acquired by the Italian State. The allied bombardments of the Second world war caused the ruin of the close buildings which enclosed it of all shares, which made it possible to the researchers to take note of the details external on all sides for the first time. As for the other monuments of Ravenne, the external ground having been raised during centuries, that of the baptistry is located now at 2,30 meters with the lower part of the level of the ground.

The monument is of octagonal form with four absidioles; it has a cupola decorated with a mosaic representing the baptism of Christ by holy Jean-Baptiste, with a pagan god appearing the the Jordan which is held close to them and carries in addition to leather of which deaf the water of the river. With the top, the Holy Ghost is in the shape of a dove whose nozzle spreads water lustrale. Low, a procession of the twelve Apostle S, carried out by the saints Pierre and Paul all around the cupola, moves towards a throne on which an invaluable crucifix is posed on a cushion of crimson. All this composition is of a great similarity with that of the baptistry the orthodoxe ones, if not in the invoice, at least in the inspiration and the broad outlines. The walls are naked, which was not always the case in the past. During archaeological research which was undertaken there with clearing of the ground, one discovered 170 kilos of tesserres indeed.

The baptistry of Ariens was located near the church of the Holy Spirit also built by Théodoric and initially named Hagia Anastasis (Holy Resurrection). This church, cathedral of the ariens, Re-were devoted like catholic cathedral under the invocation of saint Theodore (soldier and martyr of Amasea in Oporto) in 526. There remains very little original monument since its rebuilding in 1543. Certain historians think that the mosaic S of origin were already disappeared more than thousand years before the rebuilding by the catholics, because of topics ariens which were developed there. The baptistry of Ariens counts among the eight monuments ravennates which appear in the world heritage of UNESCO. ----

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