Ravenna capitale: le ville nel centro del potere

Recent studies have shown how in many parts of Italy, between the fifth and sixth centuries, except in a few cases, villas were systematically abandoned or transformed. In Romagna, instead, along the first hilly slopes of the Forlì hinterland, near the valleys of the Bidente, Rabbi and Montone rivers, we see the construction of magnificent palaces, the result of grand, imaginative and self-celebrating architectural designs. A lavish monumental reconstruction of an earlier villa has recently been documented in Fiumana (Rabbi valley) and can be traced back to the Placidian period and most likely to the imperial court. Also in the case of the villa at Galeata (Bidente valley), excavations have identified clear traces of imposing reconstructions datable to the first decades of the fifth century. In the Galeata case, we witness a radical transformation of the complex in the Theoderic age, with direct interventions of the royal court workers in architectural structuring and decorative choices. The best-known and best-studied cases to date, represented by the two villas of Fiumana and Galeata, confirm how in Late Antiquity the hills of Forlì were chosen for the construction of the great extra-urban residences of the most prominent exponents of the courts who resided between the fifth and sixth centuries in Ravenna, the new center of power. Other examples, some of them lesser-known and recalled in scarce publications from decades ago, seem to corroborate this fact.