Construction of San Vitale began in 526 under Bishop Ecclesius, and Bishop Maximian completed the church in 547. The final cost was 26,000 solidi, equal to about 36 pounds (16.38 kg) of gold. The style is Byzantine, and the article notes Roman elements such as the dome and stepped towers alongside Byzantine ones such as the polygonal apse and narrow bricks.
The plan is a double-shelled octagon, similar to Saints Sergios and Bacchos in Constantinople. Two stacked ambulatories surround the central space, and the upper one, the matrimoneum, may have been reserved for married women. The central vault uses hollow terracotta tubes fitted into one another, which the article calls the first recorded structural use of terracotta forms.
The mosaics of Justinian and Theodora are the largest and best-preserved Byzantine mosaics outside Istanbul. UNESCO listed the church in 1996 among the Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna.
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