What Is The Reason Behind Dante's Inferno?

On the eastern edge of the Emilia-Romagna region, just a few miles from the Adriatic Sea, you will find the ancient city of Ravenna. Once a thriving seaport and covered in marshes, Ravenna now lies five miles inland but remains connected to the sea by the Candiano Canal. Wandering through the unassuming town today, you’d never imagine that for a three- century span beginning in 402, Ravenna served as a capital of the Western Roman Empire, chief city of the Ostrogoth Kingdom of Italy, and a nexus of a powerful Byzantine exarchate.

During this prolonged golden age, while the rest of the Italian peninsula flailed in the wake of Barbarian invasions, Ravenna became a fertile art studio for skilled craftsmen who covered the city’s terracotta brick churches in heartrendingly beautiful mosaics. The town is home to one of the most dazzling collections of early Christian mosaic artwork, preserved from the influences of the Renaissance and Baroque era due largely to the city’s remoteness. Even Dante himself pulled inspiration from the mosaics of Ravenna.

One particular scene shows San Lorenzo facing leaping flames and is said to have been the inspiration behind Dante’s ‘Inferno.’ Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302 and eventually made his way to Ravenna. He once described the artwork as a ‘symphony of color’ and surrounded by the city’s mosaics, he finished Paradiso—the third and final part of the Divine Comedy. He spent the last few years of his life admiring Ravenna’s masterpieces and eventually died in the city. Today, you can find Dante’s tomb where a single burning oil lamp burns continuously, the oil a gift from the exiled poet’s guilt-ridden hometown of