Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

Built by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as his palace chapel in the early sixth century, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo still shows traces of a court that was later erased. On some columns, arms and hands survive from mosaic figures of praying Goths and Theodoric's courtiers, removed in Byzantine times.

The mosaics of the side walls are preserved, along with twenty-four columns with simplified Corinthian capitals and an ambo. Mosaics with openly Arian themes or that glorified the king were destroyed from the sixth century onward, and Felice Kibel restored and altered the survivors in the mid-19th century. The porticoed façade dates from the 16th century and the tower from the 10th. The apse was rebuilt after damage in World War II.

The church was dedicated to Christ the Redeemer in 504 as an Arian church. In 856 it took its present name, when relics of Saint Apollinaris arrived from Sant'Apollinare in Classe. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.