Burial Dante spent his final years in exile in Ravenna and died there in 1321. The day after his death his funeral was held in the cloister of the basilica, then a
Franciscan monastery, the Church of San Pier Maggiore, later called
Basilica di San Francesco. He was then buried outside the cloister by the roadside in an ancient Roman
sarcophagus, in which he still rests.
Bernardo Canaccio wrote a poetic Latin epitaph in 1366, which was inscribed on its lid: The sarcophagus was moved to the west side of the cloister by
Bernardo Bembo, Venetian
podestà of Ravenna, at the end of the 15th century. A few years later Dante's hometown of
Florence began making requests to have his remains returned. This had the support of two
Medici popes,
Pope Leo X and
Pope Clement VII. The first request was supported by
Michelangelo and in 1519 Leo granted Florence permission to move the sarcophagus there, but the Franciscans had enough time to make a hole in the wall and secretly move Dante's bones there. A
Tuscan delegation duly arrived but found the sarcophagus empty. It was moved into the cloister and kept under guard.
17th to 19th centuries Meanwhile the
bones were put in a new box in 1677 by Antonio Sarti, prior of the monastery. The sarcophagus was restored under armed guard in 1692. The bones were put back in their original sarcophagus in 1781, Florence had not given up hope of having the remains removed from Ravenna, however, and in 1829 the city erected a
cenotaph in
Santa Croce Basilica, showing the poet seated in thought and a personification of Poetry weeping over the sarcophagus. The box's location was forgotten until 27 May 1865, when it was found by a worker carrying out restoration work for the 600th anniversary of Dante's birth. A young student and later a respected notary, Matteucci Anastasio, noticed the words "OSSA DANTIS" (Dante's bones) on the box and saved it from being thrown into a common grave. (The full inscription stated: "Dantis ossa a me Frate Antonio Santi hic posita 1677, die 18 Octobris", written by Friar Santi.) The almost complete skeleton of bones were rearticulated and put on display to the public in a crystal coffin for a few months before being reburied under the monument in a walnut chest protected by a lead cover. It remains in place and has never been returned to Florence.
1900–present In 1921 a bronze garland was added to the foot of the sarcophagus in memory of the dead of
World War I, as well as a marble plaque to its right describing the various restorations of the tomb and an iron gate to the neighbouring garden, designed by the Venetian artist Umberto Bellotto. The bones were hidden yet again during
World War II to prevent them being destroyed by bombing. They were buried in the garden from March 1944 to 19 December 1945 until they were returned to the monument, now marked with a plaque. The monument was restored in 2006–2007, including a complete repainting of its facades. == References ==