THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST
THE ORIGINS
The building, also known as the church of the Saints Nicander and Marcian, was built in 424 A.D. on behalf of Galla Placidia, regent of the Western Roman Empire, as a vow for surviving a shipwreck in the port of Ravenna. A storm had hit the ship which was bringing Galla Placidia from Constantinople, and the church was built on the spot were the survivors had landed.
A marble inscription still stands on the entrance of the church thus reading: " Galla Placidia, her son Placidus Valentinianus Augustus and her daughter Iusta Grata Honoria fulfilled the vows swore for being delivered from the adversities of the sea". According to another legend, not only the saint would have appeared to the mother of future emperor Valentinianus III, but he also gifted her with the sandal of his left foot, as a relic to religiously preserve.
THE LATE ANTIQUITY
Picture: Remnants of a mosaic emerged during the 1948 excavations
3D reconstruction of the late antiquity church
Shorter than the modern building, the ancient church was provided with three naves, separated by marble columns surmonted by corynthian capitals.
Layout of the church originary structure.
Of the modifications executed between the VI and VII century, remain parts of mosaics (une from the central nave, and another from the south one), a slight rise of the ground floor, and a raised threshold. The south-east corner of the nave was possibly bricked up, possibly in order to serve as a pastophorion.
THE MIDDLE AGES
Picture: map of the church area, together with the annexed monastery.
It was probably between the VIIIth and IXth centuries that the church attained its modern proportions, marked by two rows12 columns in proconnesian marble. Around the year 1000, in the same period when the bell tower was built, the basilica became the seat of a group of benedictine monks, who raised their own monastery beside the main building. In the XIth and XIIIth centuries instead, the pavement decorations were executed.
Mosaic with geometrical, human and animal figures.
Thanks to the heritage left by Lamberto da Polenta in1316, it was possible to build a quadrangle with an elegant marble gate in gothic style, and a XIIIth century chapel, whith frescoes ascribable to Pietro da Rimini' school of Giotto. The church's wooden ceiling, on the other hand, was built in 1334.
Church of Saint John the Evangelist; a detail from the gothic gate.
THE MODERN AGE
Picture: a photo depicting the interiors of the church with its baroque appearance, before the restorations.
Over the following centuries the basilica underwent several modifications, both on the inside and on the outside of the church by abbot Teseo Aldrovandi (XVIth century) and don Gaspare Ghirardini in1747, including external interentions and a complete baroque restyling of the interiors, with elaborate stucco decorations.
The Banquet of Ahasuerus (oil on canvas, 600 x 700 cm) painted by Carlo Bononi for the refectory of the canon regulars of Saint John the Evangelist, 1620 ca.
In 1821-26, the monastery attached to the church was converted in a civil hospital by archbishop Antonio Codronchi, while through the 1921 restorations , executed on the occasion of Dante Alighieri's death, the restorers removed the several baroque superstructures, wishing to restore the church's original appearance.
The basilica and the monastery converted in a civil hospital as depicted by Gaetano Savini in a 1900 panoramic chart of Ravenna as viewed from the south.
THE BOMBINGS AND THE RESTORATION
Picture: Saint John's church, following the bombings during the Second World War.
The gothic gate of the church of Saint John following the bombings.
During the Second World War, the british air forces, in the attempt of destroyng the train station of Ravenna, hits instead the church of Saint John the Evangelist, destroying more than half of the basilica and severely damaging the remaining parts, to the point that a complete demolition of the building is taken in consideration.
The works of reconstruction of the church of Saint John the Evangelist, in a post-war photo.
Eventually, the municipality chose to initiate the restoration of the basilica, and in 1946 began the works of restoration, led by engineer Guido Minardi, under the direction of engineer Luigi Crema, commissary of the superintendecy for the monuments, that will end in 1950. The former appearance of the basilica is restored, together with the adjacent renaissance cloister, on three sides.
