
Locations in Ravenna Festival
The Pieve of Pisignano was probably built in the 10th century (the oldest document dates back to 977) on a high dune, on the border of the Roman grid of Cesena. In 1473 Pope Sisto IV gave the pieve, together with its estate, to the Augustinian nuns of the Santissima Annunziata in Venice, also called “of S. Lucia”. In 1512, after the Battle of Ravenna fought between the French and the Spanish, the pieve was destroyed by the scattered troops and then rebuilt by the nuns in 1521. Six years later it was consecrated to the protomartyr saint Stefano: two marble plaques on the façade and in the apse bear witness to these events. In the following centuries the pieve was disfigured by Baroque superstructures and then eventually restored to its original and suggestive Romanic aspect with two interventions (1911-12 and 1979-82) thanks to parsons don Romualdo Turchetti and don Giuseppe Senni and to the Opera of the Superintendence for the Environmental and Architectural Heritage. The latter, in 1993, took the pieve under its care as a building of historic and artistic interest. The name pieve comes from Latin plebs-plebis = people. Today it is surrounded by a park, where a Roman milestone dating back to the 1st century A.C. is placed, and is proudly considered a common heritage of Faith and Art.
The Abbey of San Mercuriale is the most celebrated monument in Forlì. A symbol of the city, the religious building was built in the place of an older site (maybe dating back to the 5th century) and nowadays comprises a three-nave church in the Romanic style (12th century), an imposing Lombard bell tower (1178), and the 16th-century cloister which was completely restored in 1940. Previously, the Abbey included a monastery, a graveyard, and a “hospital” to host pilgrims. San Mercuriale looks out on Forlì’s main square, in the heart of the historic city centre, the same area that a thousand years ago was the “campo dell’abate” (the abbot’s field), beyond an arm of the Rabbi river which separated it from the city. Almost nothing of historic evidence remains of the original building of the 5th century. Most of the details we have about it refers to the tradition and the comparison with similar sites in the extraordinary sacred and architectural history of the Italian peninsula. The history of San Mercuriale is full of important and complex religious, political, social, and architectural events that have featured in the development of the city of Forlì for over 1500 years.
Today SAPIR is the main Terminal Operator of the port of Ravenna and one of the largest ones in Italy.
It manages a 500,000 m2 area and relies on 1,600 m of docks with a 10,50 m water depth, linked to the railway network and equipped with eight harbour cranes capable of handling heavy lift cargo up to 400 tons.
Classis Ravenna is one of the most important archaeological museums in Italy and a real travel backwards in history.
Housed in the ex-sugar factory of Classe, it stretches over an exhibition area of 2800 square metres, surrounded by a green park of one and a half hectares always open to the public.
Inside, the rich museum heritage of 600 artifacts shows the different phases of the history of Ravenna, touching some of the most important periods, like the origins between Etruscans and Umbrians, the Roman Age, the Imperial Age, Ravenna during Theoderic’s reign and the Byzantine conquest.
Along the imaginary timeline “Linea del Tempo”, in-depth analyses and specific themes are developed through modern technological, graphical and 3D tools, highlighting some aspects of the city and of the territory that marked people’s life over the past centuries. In this way, visitors get to known themes like the growth and the development of the city, the old fleet and navigation system, the practice of faith, the artistic production, the funerary customs and much more.
Classis Ravenna is also an active didactic hub with specific itineraries for schools, offering workshops of study and renovation carried out in collaboration with Universities and other institutions.
It builds, together with the Ancient Port of Classe and the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, the Archaeological Park of Classe, which will be completed in the future with the musealization of one last site – the Basilica of San Severo.
The practice of temporary re-use (regulated since February 2015 in the thematic POC Darsena di città) is one of the most interesting and innovative models that have been applied to the Darsena (dock) within the urban reactivation plan: such a practice offers the chance to intervene on free areas through a calibrated functionalization of the open spaces, using unifying elements with marked port features, and creating new activities.
Darsena PopUp was born within this context, as an intervention deeply connected to the port identity of Ravenna; the vision of the project is led by the willingness to carry on the redevelopment of the Darsena di città, promoted by Associazione Naviga in Darsena over the years. It is a project of social start up, whose object is the creation of a new field of services for the neighbourhood, a reference point for the community, and a connecting point between the city centre and the urban side of the docks, through the creation of new spaces for sport, culture, and leisure, joined in a context featuring also commercial services, spaces for associations and professionals of both the research and cultural-creative field.
Located between the mouth of Fiumi Uniti and the Pinewood of Classe, Lido di Dante is about 15km away from the centre of Ravenna. The natural landscapes that surround it have escaped building speculation and are a real paradise for campers and for holidays in well-equipped apartments and small villas.
Stretching south of Lido di Dante, the impressing naturalistic area of the mouth of Bevano River includes 3km-long public beaches.