The small mausoleum
A domed neoclassical building of 1780 over the grave.
ThePhotografer โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Accurimbono โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Gianni Careddu โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Gianni Careddu โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**The tomb of Italy's greatest poet in the city Florence exiled him to โ and Florence still asks for his bones** โ in central Ravenna. **Dante Alighieri** died in Ravenna in **1321** **in exile from Florence** under a political sentence; **and he finished the *Divine Comedy* here**. โ **Florence asked for his remains repeatedly over the centuries** โ **and Ravenna refused**. โ **When Florence finally obtained a papal order, the Franciscan friars opened the tomb and hid the bones** โ **and they stayed hidden for centuries**, โ **until they were found by accident in 1865** inside a wall. โ **The present mausoleum dates from 1780**: a small domed neoclassical building. โ **Florence sends the oil for its lamp every year** โ an acknowledgement of the wrong. โ **Entry is free and quick.**
A domed neoclassical building of 1780 over the grave.
A garden and cloister around the tomb where silence is asked.
Goldfish above 10th-century mosaic in San Francesco.
Via Dante Alighieri 9, 48121 Ravenna, Italy
**A factional struggle in Florence ended in a standing death sentence โ and Dante refused the terms of pardon to the end.** โ **The context**: early-14th-century **Florence** was split between two **Guelph** factions โ the **Whites** (who wanted the city independent of the Pope) and the **Blacks** (allied with him). **Dante was a White** and held high political office. โ **What happened**: in **1301** the **Blacks** seized the city with the backing of Pope **Boniface VIII** and a French force, **while Dante was in Rome on a diplomatic mission**. โ **He was tried in absentia on fabricated corruption charges** โ **sentenced to exile and a fine**, **and then to be burned alive if he returned to Florence**. โ **The offer he refused**: a **pardon** was later offered on condition **that he pay a fine and walk in a public penitential procession** admitting guilt. โ **He refused** โ **writing that he would not return that way**, and that the sun and the stars can be seen from anywhere. โ **So he moved between Verona and other cities** until settling in **Ravenna** as the guest of its lord, **wrote the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso in exile**, **and died there in 1321**.
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