images to explain the Gospel

The power of the image in explaining the Gospel. Hotels near the monuments and the mosaics of Ravenna.

Photo:1) S. Apollinare Nuovo, detail of the Christ sat down in throne, 2)S. Apollinare in Classe, the mosaic of the medaillon with gemmated cross, 3)S.Vitale, right wall of the presbytery, the evangelists Matteo and Marco, 4)Mausoleo Galla Placidia, the Good Sheperd

How can be explain the friendship with God ?: through beauty.

Not seductive beauty which distances our heart that always remains un easy on its true goal, but the beauty of that which is right and true in life, because only this beauty actually wins hearts and turns them to God.

The question posed by Frossard on the reason behind the exceptional beauty of the Ravenna mosaics would appear to be the same that Dostoevskij,in his book "The Idiot", poses on the lips of the atheist Ippolit to Prince Myskin.

It would almost seem that the silence of Myskin -who with infinite compassion assists the young man that is dying of typhoid at only eighteen years of age, is trying to say that beauty that saves the world is love that shares pain.

Frossard proceeds in the study and remarks that it is  the figures of the mosaics themselves that represent beauty which offers salvation.

A reflection of the greatest Christian mystery - love which shares pain - the mosaics of Ravenna offer themselves to a new union, between the Good and beauty, in the form of a unique and extensive art work.

In Ravenna friendship with God takes form in the figures: as the figures possess the same force as words. More than the words themselves, they go straight to the heart: where they are stored and mature until they become a form of intellectual knowledge.

The mosaics  are logical, clear and concrete so that they become a kind of pre-sampled experience of divine friendship which ends in a sigh, as we wish it would never end.

These are the roots of the most beautiful mosaics in the world.

Prof. Gianni Morelli

The pleasure of fine accommodation in the centre of Ravenna: we recommend the Fabbri hotels for a pleasant stay as follows:

The Centrale Byron hotel, 3-star, in the centre of Ravenna, close to the mosaics and to the monuments ;

The Bisanzio Hotel, 4-star hotel in the centre of Ravenna, close to the mosaics and to the monuments ;

Once you have reached the hotel and parked your car, forget it and walk everywhere, because everything is within walking distance.

The railway station is near our hotels and within walking distance of them.

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