Work on Sant'Apollinare in Classe started at the beginning of 6th century by order of Bishop Ursicinus, using money from the Roman banker Iulianus Argentarius.

In the 15th century, Sigismondo Malatesta stripped the church of the marble covering the walls of the side aisles, to use it for the construction of the Tempio Malatestiano of San Francesco in Rimini.

The sides of the arch show two palms which, in the Bible's symbolism, represent justice; under them are the archangels Michael and Gabriel, with the bust of St. Matthew and another unidentified saint.

[4] In the spaces between the windows are the four bishops who founded the main basilicas in Ravenna: Urscinus, Ursus, Severus and Ecclesius, all with a book in a hand.

At the sides of the apse are two 7th-century panels: the left one, which has largely been restored, portrays the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV[6] granting privileges to an envoy of the Ravenna's archbishop.

They attest the changes of style from the 5th to the 8th centuries: from reliefs with human figures of the Roman sarcophagi, to Byzantine symbolism, to the increasing abstraction and simplification of these symbologies.