DOMUS DEI TAPPETI DI PIETRA

The Domus dei tappeti di pietra (House of Stone Carpets) is one of the most important archaeological sites discovered in Italy in recent years.

In 1993, during excavations for the construction of a civil building in the old city centre of Ravenna a series of buildings dating from the 5th and 6th centuries AD came to light.

In an enormous underground area with a surface of more than 1200 square metres located about 3 metres below street level, the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra consists of 14 rooms and 3 courtyards. It may have belonged to a functionary of the court of Ravenna as all the floors of the rooms are decorated with polychrome mosaics and Byzantine marble.

Of particular interest and beauty are the mosaics decorated with geometric shapes, floral patterns, and figurative scenes considered to be quite unique in this genre. For example the "Dance of the Four Seasons", is an extremely rare representation which depicts spirits dancing in a circle, and the "Good Shepard", who is shown in a very different way than the standard Christian representation.

The Domus was inaugurated by the then President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in October 2002 and was award the Bell’Italia prize for 2004.

The archaeological site can be entered from the small eighteenth century church of Santa Eufemia in Via Barbiani.