[ Feb.2015 ] The next place we went during our mosaic tour in Ravenna in Italy was Arian Baptistry, which was not included in the multi ticket and it was free to enter.
Arians were the people who thought that Jesus Christ was an adopted child of God and not God himself and they deny Trinity.
They were regarded as heretics.
Theodric the Great, the king of Ostogoths who invaded Italy at the end of 5th century was one of them, so the baptistries or basilicas built by him were Arians.
This baptistry has been changed in many ways during the long hitory, but in the WW2, it was destroyed by the bombs and only the original part has been survived.
This photo is another Arian building built by Theodric called Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo.
On one side, the procession of 22 holy women is depicted and on the other side there is the procession of 26 martyrs.
Near the ceiling there are pictures of stories of Jesus Christ’s life.
Apparently because the mosaics were too gorgeous, believers could not concentrate on the mass.
So one time a Pope tried to make them sooty by smoke,
