Mausoleum of Theodoric

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Mausoleum of Theodoric

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Ravenna, Italy
Part of	Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, iii, iv
Reference	788-007
Inscription	1996 (20th Session)
Area	0.014 ha
Buffer zone	21.6 ha
Coordinates	44°25′30″N 12°12′33″E / 44.42500°N 12.20917°E / 44.42500; 12.20917
Location of the mausoleum Mausoleum of Theodoric (Italy) Show map of Emilia-RomagnaShow map of ItalyShow all

The Mausoleum of Theodoric (Italian: Mausoleo di Teodorico) is an ancient monument just outside Ravenna, Italy. It was built in 520 AD by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, as his future tomb.

Description[]

The mausoleum's current structure consists of two decagonal orders, one above the other and both made of Istria stone. Its roof is a single 230 tonne Istrian stone, 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter. A niche leads down to a room that was probably a chapel for funeral liturgies; an external stair leads to the upper floor. Located in the centre of the upper floor is a fragmentary ancient Roman porphyry tub, likely from a bath complex, in which Theodoric was buried. His remains were removed during Byzantine rule, when the mausoleum was turned into a Christian oratory. In the late 19th century, silting from a nearby rivulet that had partly submerged the mausoleum was drained and excavated.

Recognition[]

It was inscribed with seven other "Early Christian Monuments and Mosaics of Ravenna" buildings as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1996. According to the ICOMOS evaluation, "the significance of the mausoleum lies in its Gothic style and decoration, which owe nothing to Roman or Byzantine art, although it makes use of the Roman stone construction technique of opus quadratum, which had been abandoned four centuries before" and in the fact that "it is the only surviving example of a tomb of a king of this period."^[1]

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  Inside lower level

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  Inside top level

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  Inside top level with cracked roof stone

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  Inside top level wideangle

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  Porphyry sarcophagus of Theodoric

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mausoleum of Theoderic the Great.

• Ostrogothic Ravenna
• Palace of Theodoric now lost, also in Ravenna
• Sparlösa Runestone
• Haus Potsdam
• History of medieval Arabic and Western European domes

References[]

Further reading[]

• Weitzmann, Kurt, ed., Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, no. 109, 1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ISBN 9780870991790; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries

External links[]

• Ravenna Turismo Timetable and information for visiting the mausoleum and other Ravenna monuments, in Italian, English and German.
• Original text adopted from [1]. No copyright notice has been found on the site so far. Please remove the text and the photo if you find one.
• Revolving image of the upper floor. The dark color tub appears at the lower corner.
• Download a free paper model of Theoderic's Mausoleum (www.papermodel.cz)