MAUSOLEO DE GALA PLACIDIA

The construction of this building began in the year 424, the same year in which Galla Placidia returned to the West from Byzantium, and it is estimated that it could have been completed around the year 436. Initially, this small building was part of the Basilica of the Santa Croce, to which it was attached through the narthex of said church, but subsequent demolitions turned it into an independent building. The name ‘mausoleum’ is applied to this building, but this interpretation gives rise to disagreements among specialists, and it is difficult to accept that it is the burial place of Galla Placidia. However, it is most plausible that Gala Placida commissioned this construction for this funerary purpose, although its shape as a Latin cross breaks, a priori, with the tradition of an imperial mausoleum with a centralized plan. As arguments in favor of a funerary function, we find its low lighting and the sarcophagi it contains, which, although they are from the same period as the building, were deposited later.

Regarding its formal description, the exterior of the building is very simple and perfectly reflects its plan and its internal structures. The building was made of brick and its exterior walls are articulated by means of a blind archway with semicircular arches on pilasters. These walls are topped with triangular pediments, also made of brick, as an extension of the gabled roof that hides the barrel vaults inside. At the meeting of the arms of the cross, a quadrangular dome rises that hides a hollow vault and crowning its walls, some small cornices decorated with lines of flat tiles mark the change between walls and roofs.

The extreme simplicity of its exterior does not presage the sumptuousness of the interior decoration, resolved with polychrome mosaics. Not surprisingly, we find ourselves before one of the most important collections of mosaics in the paleochristian world.

MOSAICS

The chromatic range of the mosaics located inside the building creates a delicate and soft atmosphere that arouses in the visitor a feeling of admiration and true beauty; a sensation of light contributed by the light that filters through the alabaster sheets that cover the small windows; a warm and golden light that gives the building a special luminosity.

The formal richness of these mosaics is dazzling, made up of small, glazed tesserae with an abundance of deep blues.

On the barrel vaults of the four arms that form the cross, decorative motifs abound, made up of flowers and rosettes, inspired by the patterns of oriental fabrics. These arms end in semicircular eardrums which house different types of decoration and rich iconography.

In the tympanum of the entrance we find Christ represented as the ‘Good Shepherd’, one of the most successful early Christian iconographic elements. The figure of Christ corresponds to that of a young and beardless man, represented with a halo of holiness or golden nimbus and leaning on a cross.

On the tympanum of the head we can see the image of San Lorenzo, this being the first figure we see when entering the mausoleum, thus manifesting the importance of this saint at that time, against Christian heresies. San Lorenzo appears represented with attributes similar to those of Christ: the nimbus over his head and a cross resting on his shoulder, with an open book in his hand and next to the grill on which he was tortured.

In the center of the iconographic plan of the mausoleum we find a large cross, in isolation, granting a greater prominence for symbolizing the death of Christ as a man, but also his divine nature. Around the cross hundreds of stars appear on a dark blue background that represents the celestial vault. And in the corners, we can contemplate the figures of the tetramorphs: the lion (San Marcos), the ox (San Lucas), the eagle (San Juan) and the man or an angel (San Mateo).

Mónica Blanco for URBS REGIA