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Ravenna's most impressive monument is certainly the Basilica of S. Vitale. The church is octagonal and built of large flat bricks (48 x 4 cm), plastered together with thick layers of lime (4 cm), a type of brickwork typical of all the buildings erected by Justinian.

It is constructed on two eight-sided storeys, of which the upper encircles the dome. Each upper storey face has a big arched window, but the windows in the bottom half of the building are smaller and form two orders separated by a slender cornice.

The Church was consecrated by Maximian in 547 or 548. The church of S. Vitale is a unique example of byzantine art; firstly because it blends in a most original way eastern and western styles into its architecture and secondly because its mosaics are complete and express with great clarity the ideology and religiosity of the Justinian era which has been defined by the historians as the First Golden Age of Byzantine Art. 

The Basilica of San Vitale is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.