Tomba di Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri's Tomb is erected at the St. Francis's Basilica, in the center of Ravenna, the city where the Great Poet lived the last years of his life and died in 1321. Built in the years 1780-81 by the architect Camillo Morigia and commissioned by Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzagala, the Tomb has a square plant and an elevation in the form of neo-Classical temple crowned with a dome. The facade is very simple, dominated by the crest of Cardinal Gonzaga and by write "Dantis poetae sepulcrum". The Tomb itself, covered in marble and stucco, consists of a Roman sarcophagus with the Latin inscription carved above by Bernardo Canaccio. The Tomb is surmounted by a bas-relief from 1483 by Pietro Lombardo depicting Dante in front of the lectern, at the foot of the sarcophagus there is a garland in bronze donated in 1921 by veterans of the Great War. On the ceiling, a eighteenth century votive lamp burns perpetually, fueled by Tuscan olive oil which is donated to Florence every year on September 14th (anniversary of the death of the Poet).