... just like the wind that sounds from branch to branch
along the shore of Classe, through the pines
when Aeolus has set Sirocco loose.
Dante Alighieri - Divina Commedia (Mandelbaum tanslation)

The harbour of Classe (or Classis), situated to the south-east of Ravenna, a few miles from the city, was founded by Augustus. "Classis" means "fleet" in Latin. It retained its strategic importance for the city and the whole of Italia until the 6th century.

For centuries, Ravenna was practically an island, surrounded by marshes and lagoons, not unlike Venice. Even after Theodoric the Great put into practice his marsh draining program, the harbour was a fundamental link to the outside world. Towards the end of his life, Theodoric even started building a Gothic fleet which never came to fruition. By the end of the 6th century, decades of war and the gradual shifting of the coastline caused a loss of importance for the harbour.

Today, the harbour is being excavated by archaeologists. The most characteristic feature of the town of Classe is the church of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, built in Byzantine times (finished in 549). Another very important Classe church was the Cathedral of San Severo, which has been excavated only recently. Its mosaics are one of the main features of the Saints Banker Kings exhibition, which was open in Ravenna until October 2006.

In the vicinity of the harbour lies the Pineta (Pine Wood) of Classe, where Theodoric waited with his army while besieging Odoacer in Ravenna from 490 to 493, and where Dante Alighieri spent his time as an exile in Ravenna, and celebrated the Pineta in his "Divina Commedia".

Text by Ælfwine Scylding