Two mosaic processions run the full nave, virgins on one side and martyrs on the other, walking toward Christ and the Virgin since Theodoric the Great built this church beside his palace in the early sixth century, dedicating it around 504.
Byzantine restorers rededicated it in 561 after Justinian's reconquest, scraping out the Ostrogothic king's courtiers from a mosaic of his palace and leaving only their disembodied hands clutching the curtained columns behind them. In 856 the relics of Saint Apollinaris arrived from Classe and gave the basilica its present name. Twenty-six martyrs process behind Saint Martin on the right wall, twenty-two virgins behind the Magi on the left, and the golden mosaic backdrop has held its color for close to 1,500 years.
