Basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna

The church is from the 5th century not far from the FS station. The bell tower and the portal of the forecourt are striking.

The first name Giovanni has been widespread since biblical times, and so it should not surprise us to find a whole series of blessed and saints with this name over the two millennia of Christianity. At the threshold from the Old to the New Testament we come across John the Baptist, to whom most of the churches dedicated to John are dedicated. But one of the four men who wrote the New Testament Gospels also bears this name. This church in Ravenna is dedicated to him, "San GIOVANNI Evangelista". A long church tradition has regarded the evangelist as identical with the apostle John mentioned in the Bible, but this is doubted in biblical scholarship.
"The Gospel of John exerts a peculiar fascination. It is difficult to escape its solemn, sometimes mystical language. It addresses deep human needs and longings: hunger and thirst, the search for fulfilling eternal life, the longing for personal communion with God.” (Franz-Josef Ortkemper)