Overall          ** 2 stars – remarkable survival

Display         2  limited information for visitors, hard to use QR codes

Access           3 open and accessible but not on UNESCO trail

Other             Hugely significant but heavily restored and bombed!

St John the Evangelist was founded by the Augusta Galla Placidia after 425, when she and her children survived a storm on the passage back from exile in Constantinople to Ravenna, and made a vow to the Evnagelist that if they survived she would build a Church to him.

Alas not much survives from the original structure although the columns, capitals and bases, re-used from a 3rd Century are part of Galla’s building.  The magnificent mosaics on the apse were destroyed in 1568, but a detailed description was made before that date.

The mosaics centred on an enthroned figure of Christ with a passage from Matthew 5.7.  There were also two panels showing the storm at sea, and representations of the Imperial Family.  In medallions above were inages of 10 of Galla Placidia’s relatives going back to Constantine and probably including her deceased son by Athaulf, Theodosius.    Beneath the enthroned Christ was a large scale image of the then Bishop of Ravenna, Peter Chrysologus, with his hands in prayer.  Peter was flanked by images of Theodosius II, Emperor of the Eastern Empire and Eudocia and their children Arcadius and Eudocia, who was married to Valentinian III, Galla’s son.  This was a startling mixture of Christ, the Imperial Family and the Bishop of Ravenna.  A combination that was to be followed in Ravenna mosaics in the future at S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe.

An interesting post-script to St John the Evangelist is that the floor from c1215 was excavated following the serious bomb damage of 1944, and panels line the walls.  Interestingly and possibly uniquely in the West, these celebrate the sack of Constantinople by the 4th Crusade in 1204, the Crusaders having been lead astray by the Doge of Venice.