I wanted to create a post for San Vitale in Ravenna. This is one of the most influential monument that clearly pictured Christianity before the Crusades. I wanted to share documents, information, thoughts, perceptions and emotions about its architecture, its mosaics, and the epoch the basilica was built.

The first document I am willing to share is about the techniques and materials used in the construction of San Vitale. I found a survey written by Luigia Binda, Giulio Roberti and F. Guzzetti: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265993236_St_VITALE_IN_RAVENNA_A_SURVEY_ON_MATERIALS_AND_STRUCTURES

The survey describes the construction of the dome using guna tubes of clay. This technique is still found nowadays in India. One of the most surprising example is Auroville, South East of India.

This technique shows what the Byzantine Empire could be, a vast center influenced by different cultures from Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The Greek influence of Byzantine structured a philosophy that get its inspiration worldwide. Europe took its roots on this philosophy, either to accept it, either to reject it and anyway to change the course of a humanity in creation, in social development, in its evolution to become the world that we inherit today. We cannot talk about Christianity as something belonging to Europe or to the white supremacy. Christianity has been since the very birth, a multicultural world.