The Ancient Port of Classe is a dive into history, the ancient and true one, not only the history of emperors but also the one of ordinary people, of every day life.
While walking in this archaeological site, you imagine the wooden boats that plied the seas, the water slamming against the dock, men with a mammoth force moving sacks of grain, others charging carriages of goods coming from who knows where.

A few kilometers far from the city center raises the archaeological site of the ancient port of Classe , built in the first Century B.C. and brought to light only in 2015.
It was not just as any port: it was the port of the Roman fleet defending the Adriatic. Over the centuries and with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the port became simply commercial, shrunken if compared to the impressive port of Augustus, but in which flourished the typical activities of fishermen and ship workers. It dates back to the V-VI Century the famous mosaic representation of the port that we find inside the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.
Starting from the sixth Century, the port and the city were repeatedly attacked and plundered by the Logobardic until its final abandonment after an earthquake in the late eighth Century.

In modern times, the port of Classe is linked to its mysterious history and connected to fortuitous findings, often occurred during the work of local farmers. In the Ninteenth Century they were found the first remains of the basilica Petriana, while in the 60s and 70s of the Twentieth Century it was found a necropolis, pieces of walls, Roman houses and also the "head of Tyche", now exhibited at the National Museum of Ravenna. Between 1975 and 1977 it was found a ceramic furnace, identified thanks to the numerous remains of amphorae. It was during this campaign of excavations that it was found for the first time the area of the port.

The project implemented in order to make possible the visit of the archaeological site will guide you on this journey through time: transparent plates overlap with the archaeological remains creating a kind of virtual reality and helping you to imagine more in detail how the port actually was, a bridge will lead you from a dock to the other, and at dusk a suggestive lighting will make this place even more magical.