Bricks for Ravenna: Materials and the Construction of a Late Antique Imperial Residence

The construction of the new imperial see of Ravenna was quite completely made with reused materials, spolia and bricks such as many other Roman tradition cities and settlements since the second half of the 3rd century. This Late Roman architecture continued to follow the same ‘imperial’ construction techniques. Reuse of material was totally logical and practical, and was not due to an economic crisis, cultural change or loss of knowledge as I will try to demonstrate in this paper. Roofing tiles, tegulae and imbrices but also clay vaulting tubes, were produced without interruption also during the early Middle ages throughout Italy. I will also try to demonstrate that there is even evidence in Ravenna of production of new bricks at the beginnings of the 5th century and in the first quarter of the 6th century. This is already well known for the main churches built during the Ostrogothic reign in Ravenna, with S. Vitale, S. Apollinare in Classe and S. Michele in Africisco, later dedicated under the Byzantine rule and completely realized with new ‘manubriati’ bricks, following the Roman tradition.