Via S. Vitale 13/30, Ravenna

Some History

Casa Traversari, the main building of the UOS in Ravenna, is made up of two neighbouring houses, the according an ancient ravennian legend, belonged to the Traversari family, owners, at the beginning of the 13th century, of many houses. The Casa is certainly after and decentred compared to that of the 200' belonging to the Traversari, that was situated between Via Girolamo and Via Ponte Marino, on the banks of the Paderna, in a group of buildings that were most likely distributed around a courtyard, according to a layout deriving from the roman house. The facade is testimony that the house underwent some reconstruction, recently, it is easy to see from the formation of the bricks, which is regular and more normal, that are found between the third window of the Bovini classroom and the entry arch, even just looking at the craftmanship of the archway, which has style traits from the 19th720th century rather than the middle ages.

The inside has three large double vaulted openings which surely did not exist at the beginning of this house's life, they probably emerged when there was a need for large spaces for studying or teaching, when, in occasion of the VI centennery Dantesco (1921) the Minister of education provided the necessary funds for the restructuring. The building had been bought a few years earlier in 1916.

After the construction of the Polo Ravennate the Archeology Department started a major restructuring on this branch to make space for the new needs, both teaching and scientific. The restoration did not affect the original division of space.

The whole restructuring process included the other buildings- starting from warehouses and lower services, which had been abandoned for years, during this process, a secondo classroom with 30 places, research laboratories for the Department's digs were recovered.

The spaces reserved for teachers and teaching were expanded in 2008, to include spaces on the ground floor of Palazzo Maioli. This building, near Casa Traversari, dates back to the age of the Venetian rule over Ravenna (1447-1509) and for centuries belonged the noble Maioli family, originally from Faenza.

What you can find

Othet than teacher's, technicians' and administrative personnel's offices you can also find the following in Casa Traversari:

• Classrooms I (Bovini) and II
• Computer laboratory and the materials laboratory.
• Ravenna's UOS Archaeological library: Specialist books and manuals for studying and researching all of the areas relating to Archeology, in particular the History and Archeology of ravennate and bizantine art, archived resources, special collections and ancient books .

How to reach us

The buildings can be found in the centre of the city, they easily accessible on foot from the train station.