Porta Nuova, Ravenna, Italy, 1958

1958 – The ‘Porta Nuova’ in Ravenna (RA) in Italy. On the right, the ‘Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto’. Scan © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com

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The story behind the image

Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy and situated at the Adriatic coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is famous for historic architecture and artworks, for example the octagonal Basilica di San Vitale, the Basilica Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. Colorful mosaics decorate many buildings.

In a larger lot of slides that I recently acquired I found a number of images covering a trip of Erika and her family to Emilia-Romagna, including Ravenna. Italy looked quite different back then, which makes this series of images a real gem, unlocking an unspoilt look at the past.

This photo shows the Porta Nuova, a monumental gate from the 16^th century located at the southern end of Via di Roma. It was the historic way to access the city from the south and well preserved.

The photographer probably stood at the corner of Via Cesare and Via Monfalcone, and used a tele lens that captured three historic buidings in one image:

• The Porta Nuova
• The Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto (on the right)
• The tower of the Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (behind the arch of Porta Nuova)

The trees on the rright have grown so much since 1958 that they block the view on Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto completely today, making it impossible to shoot that image today. Also noteworthy is the fact, that in 1958 you could still walk through the two ‘doors’ in the Porta Nuova. Today they seem to be covered.

A very nice image.

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The high resolution image

Photographer	unknown
Capture Date	1958
Location	Ravenna, Italy
Image Source	35 mm color slide film
Digital Image Source	EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo
Digital Image Source Format	TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB
Edited Image Format	JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB
Edited Image Dimensions	6407 x 3790 Pixels
Copyright	Scan © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com