The Baptistery of the Arians is located in the historic center of Ravenna, in the square of the current church of the Holy Spirit (once the cathedral of the Arians); it was built towards the end of the 5th century, when Theodoric had consolidated his dominion and Arianism was the official religion of the court. The building has an octagonal plan and has four small apses on the outside. Unfortunately, the stuccoes and ornaments that in the past had covered the walls have no longer been preserved. The decoration of the dome, covered with mosaics depicting the procession of the twelve apostles and with the baptism of Christ is currently preserved. The mosaic, while retaining the same iconographic setting of the Neonian Baptistery, from which it draws inspiration, testifies to the cult of the Aryan court of Theodoric. While in the Baptistery of the Orthodox the twelve apostles acclaim the Christ of the central clypeus as the son of God, in the Baptistery of the Arians they pay homage to the great jeweled throne surmounted by the cross, from whose arms a purple cloth hangs, expression of the physicality of Christ and of the his human suffering.
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