Tomb of Dante ( Italian: Tomba di Dante ) - the mausoleum of Dante Alighieri in the city of Ravenna ( Italy ), in the immediate vicinity of the church of St. Francis Built in 1780 according to the project of architect Camillo Morige, commissioned by the legate of Cardinal Luigi Valenti-Gonzaga.
Dante's Burial History
Dante, who died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321 , was buried in the church of San Francesco . The patron of the poet Guido Novello da Polenta planned to build him a magnificent tomb, but, having lost power in the city, did not carry out his project. In 1483, for the burial of Dante, by the order of the mayor of Bernardo Bembo, the sculptor Pietro Lombardi made a portrait of the poet, which has been preserved to this day.
In 1519, at the request of Michelangelo, Pope Leo X agreed to transfer the dust of Dante to Florence , but when the coffin was brought to the city, it turned out to be empty. A cenotaph was set up in the Basilica of Santa Croce . Later it turned out that the monks of the neighboring Franciscan monastery, not wanting to part with the poet's ashes, stole an urn from his ashes. They dug a small tunnel under the monastery wall and buried an urn in the monastery. In 1677, they placed Dante's ashes in a wooden casing, on which the then abbot ( prior ) of the Franciscan monastery Antonio Santi ordered the Latin epitaph to be cut out.
In 1780, the papal legate of Valenti-Gonzaga ordered to remove the empty sarcophagus and frieze, and to erect a mausoleum (which stands to this day) in the classical style in the old place. When the monastery was dissolved after Napoleon’s secularization after 1810 , the Franciscans hid the wooden crayfish in the cloister of the monastery. Cancer with the ashes of Dante was discovered in 1865 during a monastery renovation. Cancer was identified by the epitaph of Antonio Santi. The remains were transferred to the mausoleum and placed in a sarcophagus. The urn with the ashes of Dante during the Second World War was seized, since Ravenna was bombed. The place where the Franciscans hid the ashes is currently marked with a plaque .
Tomb
Inside the tomb is a sarcophagus with an urn made in 1483 at the direction of Bernardo Bembo. The sarcophagus is adorned with a Latin epitaph written in 1327 by Bernardo Canaccio
| Sovereign rights, heavens, Phleghetont waters, I sang, walking my earthly vale. Now my soul has gone to a better world and is blissful, contemplating among the luminaries of its Creator, here I rest, Dante, expelled from the fatherland, my native Florence, a little loving mother. |
Above the sarcophagus is a bas-relief with a portrait of the pensive Dante in front of the book stand (transferred from his burial in the church of San Francesco). Above is the gilded cross, established in 1965 to the 700th anniversary of Dante on behalf of Pope Paul VI . On the floor in the center of the mausoleum is a bronze wreath laid on the tomb in 1921 from the Italian army. An icon lamp hangs from the ceiling, which is seasoned with oil from Florence, brought to Ravenna every year in September, when the “ Dante Month ” takes place in the city.
Dante Museum
Only at night, leaning towards the valleys,
Leading the centuries to come
Shadow of Dante with an eagle profile
About New Life sings to me.
To the left of the mausoleum is a staircase leading to the Dante Museum ( Italian: Museo Dantesco ), opened in 1921. In the same year, a memorial bell installed in front of its entrance was presented to the museum as a gift from Italian cities. The museum houses models of monuments to the poet, busts , reliefs , paintings, medallions , memorial wreaths, letters. The museum houses a wooden crayfish, created in 1677 for the remains of Dante by the Franciscan Antonio Santi and a glass box in which his bones lay while examining the poet’s skeleton in 1865 .
Literature
- Ravenna. City of art. - Ravenna: EDIZIONI SALBAROLI, 2006 .-- S. 122-124.