BASILICA DI SAN VITALE, Exterior
- Audio File length: 2.44
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Language: English / USA
Hi, my name’s Marcy, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Basilica of San Vitale.
The Basilica of San Vitale is by far one of the greatest masterpieces of Byzantine architecture and art still in existence.
Just imagine, its inauguration dates as far back as 548.
It was Bishop Ecclesius who wanted its construction, but it was his successor Maximian who saw the completion of the monumental work.
In those days, power was in the hands of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, who also wanted to manifest the power and grandeur of his empire through works like the one you are admiring.
The outside of the basilica already looks extraordinary, with its fusion of different elements of shapes and volumes.
Prominent among them is the octagonal-shaped central body, surmounted by a structure of the same shape, called a tiburium, which encloses a stupendous dome....