The National Museum of Ravenna is located in the monumental complex of San Vitale in the historic center of the city. Inside the rooms of the National Museum of Ravenna important archaeological finds are exhibited, including sepulchral steles, Roman epigraphs and collections of minor arts. The original nucleus that gave life to the museum heritage was built in the eighteenth century, with patient research and care, by the learned monks of the great city abbeys. On the first floor you can admire, within the orderly Benedictine architecture, the graceful Renaissance bronzes, a fascinating collection of ivories, a rich nucleus of icons, a section dedicated to ceramics and a valuable collection of ancient weapons. Among the exhibits that can be visited we can mention the capitals in oriental marble, decorated sarcophagi and other artifacts from the 5th and 6th centuries. The best known come from the early Christian and Byzantine monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: among these, the barriers and the cross from San Vitale and the sinopia preparatory to the mosaic of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. The museum also preserves the important cycle of frescoes from the fourteenth century, a masterpiece by Pietro da Rimini, detached from the ancient church of Santa Chiara in Ravenna.