ARCHIEPISCOPAL MUSEUM AND CHAPEL OF ST. ANDREW, Presentation Of The Museum

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Archiepiscopal Museum in Ravenna.

The Archiepiscopal Museum of Ravenna, housed in the Archbishop's Palace, contains the magnificent Chapel of St. Andrew, which I will tell you about in the next file.

The building stands just behind the Metropolitan Cathedral of Ravenna, built in 1732 in the area where the Basilica Ursiana had been built almost 12 centuries earlier.

The original basilica was named after Bishop Orso, who had it erected when Ravenna became the capital of the Western Roman Empire in 402 AD. In addition to the sacred building, a complex was also built of which this palace was a part, which underwent major modifications over time. In fact, its current appearance can be traced back to major restorations carried out around 1563 and the late 19th-century remaking of the facade.

Some of the rooms of the palace became a museum starting in 1734, when Archbishop Niccolò Maffeo Farsetti decided to collect, in a special room, tombstones, mosaics, capitals and other objects from the Basilica Ursiana and other sacred buildings in the city....