 |
| Dante's Tomb in Ravenna |
Dante's spoils have been contended between Ravenna and Florence for a long time, and between the 16th and the 18th century, the remains went missing, hidden by the Franciscan friars in a small wooden chest, so that Florence couldn’t get them.
The current mausoleum was built between 1780 and 1782. It was ordered by Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga (1725 – 1808) and designed by the Ravenna architect Camillo Morigia (1743-1795), who created a little Neoclassical temple made of simple lines and sombre decorations. The rests were recovered and placed in the new mausoleum until 1810, when Napoleon ordered the confiscation of monastic property, and the friars were forced to leave, but first they made sure to hide again the chest with the remains.
 |
The majestic oak next to the mausoleum was planted by poet Giosuè Carducci at the beginning of the 20th century. The Mausoleum's doors close in the evening. |
On May 25th 1865, during some maintenance works at the monastery beside the tomb, a bricklayer accidentally found a wooden chest in a wall of the Quadrarco di Braccioforte. Luckily, a young student, Anastasio Matteuggi, saved the box from destruction.
The chest had a script saying “Dantis ossa a me Fra Antonio Sancti hic posita anno 1677 die 18 octobris”, which means “These bones of Dante placed by me on the date of 18 October 1677”. It was the original wooden chest where the friars kept the Poet's remains.
On that occasion, the remains were reassembled and put on display in a crystal urn for a few months. The crystal urn, without glass, is now displayed in the Dante Museum (see photo below), and so is the Franciscan friars' wooden chest.
 |
| The crystal urn, without glass, where Dante's remains were reassembled and put on display |
Inside the mausoleum we can see the bass relief by sculptor Pietro Lombardo, on the sepulchre’s top is engraved a Latin epitaph written by poet Bernardo Canaccio in 1327.
At the centre of the little room, a votive lamp burns with the oil donated by Tuscany. Every year, on the second Sunday of September, the city of Florence sends a delegation and offers the oil to commemorate their most famous citizen, who died in exile.
 |
| The mausoleum with open doors. |
 |
| Our Dante Auckland member Alessandra in one of the multimedia rooms at the Dante Museum in Ravenna |
For more Dante's experiences in Ravenna visit this site https://www.turismo.ra.it/en/follow-your-way/dante-alighieri/
