Mausoleum of Theodoric

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Mausoleum of Theodoric

The Mausoleum of Theodoric (Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
: Mausoleo di Teodorico) is an ancient monument just outside Ravenna

Ravenna

Ravenna is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna once served as the seat of the Western Roman Empire and later the Ostrogoths and the Exarchate of Ravenna....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. It was built in 520 by Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great

File:Theodoric bronze weight inlaid with silver issued by prefect Catulinus Rome 493 526.jpg'Theodoric the Great' , known in Latin as 'Flavius Theodericus' and in Greek sources, was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , and regent of the Visigoths ....
as his future tomb.

Its current structure is divided into two decagonal orders, one above the other; both are made of Istria

Istria

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Encyclopedia

Ravenna

Italy

Theodoric the Great

Istria

File:Istria Croatian Adriatic.pngIstria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner....
stone. Its roof is a single 300–ton Istrian stone, 10 meters in diameter. A niche leads down to a room that was probably a chapel for funeral liturgies; a stair leads to the upper floor. Located in the centre of the floor is a circular porphyry

Porphyry (geology)

Porphyry is a variety of igneous Rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspar Matrix or groundmass....
tub, in which Theodoric was supposed to be buried. His remains were removed during Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
rule, when the mausoleum was turned into a Christian oratory

Oratory (worship)

In Christianity, an oratory is a room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is for all intents and purposes another word for what is commonly called a chapel....
. In the late 19th century, silting from a nearby rivulet that had partly submerged the mausoleum was drained and excavated.

It was inscribed with seven other "Early Christian Monuments and Mosaics of Ravenna" buildings as one of the UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
World Heritage Sites in 1996. According to the ICOMOS evaluation, "the significance of the mausoleum lies in its Gothic style and decoration, which owe nothing to Roman or Byzantine art" and in the fact that "it is the only surviving example of a tomb of a barbarian king of this period."

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Original text adopted from . No copyright notice has been found on the site so far. Please remove the text and the photo if you find one.
. The dark color tub appears at the lower corner.