The mosaics
The most ancient of Ravenna monuments, at least with regard to when building began, it dates to the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century. It is a simple octagonal plan brick building with four large niches spreading towards the exterior and with the doors buried (the original level is about three metres below the present one). The Baptistery was splendidly decorated with mosaics by bishop Neone in 450. Inside, besides very beautiful mosaic decoration of Hellenic-Roman influence, several stucco-works and marble parts remain. In the middle there is an octagonal font of Greek marble and porphyry, reworked in the 16th century, which still preserves some original fragments.
Neonian Baptistry
The Subconscious and Conscious
During a trip to Ravenna in the 1930s Carl Gustav Jung visited the Neonian baptistery and saw a mosaic in which Christ is shown holding out a hand to Peter who is about to drown. He discussed this at length with his travelling companion, reflecting together on its meaning, the expression of the archetypal idea of death and rebirth. It was only on his return to Zurich that, while trying to find a photograph of this mosaic, he realised that the image he had seen did not exist.
Jung wrote some beautiful pages in Ravenna in his Memories, Dreams and Reflections, recounting the strange experience in Ravenna as a moment in which the subconscious and conscious meet, when the physical eyes perceive a vision that is not real but nevertheless real in experience. The magic of the mosaics in Ravenna influenced even the father of psychoanalysis.
Contacts
Address:
Piazza
Duomo
- RA - Locality Ravenna
Phone number: 0544 541688
Times
Week-day timetable: 9.30 - 17.30 Ticket office closes at 17.15
Weekend timetable: 9.30 - 17.30 Ticket office closes at 17.15
Close: Closed on the 25th of December and on the 1st of January
Tariffs
Admission:
Euro 8.50 (combined ticket including: S.Apollinare Nuovo, Neonian Baptistery, San Vitale, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia)
Reduced admission:
Euro 7.50 (combined ticket) for Organizations with special agreements and students and for groups escorted by Ravenna's authorized touristic guides.
Through rates:
The ticket is only inclusive
Free of charge:
Children up to 10 y.o., disabled people and escort, ecclesiastics, militaries, journalists (with document). For groups: 1 tour leader free every 20 payers. For schools: 1 teacher free every 15 payers.
from 01/03 to 15/06
For the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Extra charge of euro 2,00 for combined ticket.
Booking for groups is compulsory.
Free admission to the mausoleum only: children up to 5 years of age; group-leaders or bus drivers (1 every 20 paying visitors); disabled people certified; ecclesiastics, journalists and members of the military forces in possession of an official document stating their qualification. For school groups: 1 teacher free every 15 payers. For groups: 1 tour leader free every 20 payers.
Tourist area
City of Art
How to get there
Central zone, bus stop all lines at 200 m., car park at 50 mt., accessible to disabled people.
Close to Duomo, Archiepiscopal Museum and Archiepiscopal Chapel
.
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