The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is the oldest of Ravenna's UNESCO monuments, built in the first half of the 5th century, and it contains the most beautiful mosaics in the city — which is saying something. From outside, the building is small, dark, and unpromising: a plain brick cross-shaped structure on the edge of the San Vitale complex. Inside, you step into a different world.
The mosaics here are earlier than San Vitale and have a different character: deep blue grounds studded with gold stars, dense with symbolic imagery — the Good Shepherd, drinking doves, the cross against the night sky. In the lunette above the entrance, Christ sits in a gold robe among white sheep, a scene of extraordinary serenity. The starry vault over the central crossing is what visitors remember.
The space is tiny — it fills quickly with even a small group — and is most powerful when nearly empty. Come first thing in the morning or in the late afternoon. The light inside is dim even on a bright day, which adds to the sense of entering something ancient and private.