Santa Maria in Porto Basilica

The Basilica of Santa Maria in Porto was an important church in Ravenna, not far from Porta Nuova, on the via Roma, the north–south high street across the historic city centre.

They hosted pope Julius II in the new buildings in 1511 when he was travelling through Romagna - the same year he commissioned Bernardino Tavella to design the canons a new monastery church, but its construction only began in 1553.

The roof of the central nave was completed in 1561, but the consecration of the whole church by only occurred on 8 October 1606 - it was presided over by Pietro Aldobrandini, camerlengo and archbishop of Ravenna.

When the French invaded in 1797, the sanctuary was ransacked and the monks expelled, with the new Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan assigned a painting from the monastery by Ercole de Roberti "known as the Pala Portuense[2] ... [showing] the Virgin and Child enthroned; Saints Anne, Elisabeth and Augustine and Blessed Pietro degli Onesti".

Archbishop Vincenzo Moretti (1871-1879) and his successors promoted the restoration of the cult of the Greek Madonna in the church - on 21 April 1900, the 800th anniversary of its miraculous appearance, the sculpture was solemnly crowned.