Built around 123 d.C. As a sepulcher for Emperor Hadrian and his family, Castel Sant'Angelo accompanies for almost two thousand years the fate and history of Rome.
From a fortified foremost funerary monument, from a dark and terrible jail to a splendid Renaissance home that is active in its Michelangelo walls, from the Risorgimento Prison to the current museum.
The remains of the original mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian are well visible in the lower partitions of the building. The large travertine blocks that cover the walls clearly show the holes of the metal grapples that anchored the Roman marble coating.
The transformation of the building from a funerary monument to a fortified outpost is about 271 dC. When, under the Emperor Aurelian, he was adapted to the fortress and became definitive in 403 with the inclusion of the building in the Aurelian walls.
It was Pope Niccolò V, about 1450, to furnish the castle of a real apartment and, fifty years later, Pope Borgia ordered the construction of a new, luxurious apartment with gardens and fountains and decorated by Pinturicchio.
From the 17th century Castel Sant'Angelo seems to gradually lose the role of residence to form itself almost exclusively as a prison; Carbonari and patriots consume their days of imprisonment between these walls, until at least September 20, 1870, when Rome was proclaimed the capital of the young Kingdom of Italy.
Then, in the wide boulevards of the Lungotevere, two bastions of the pentagonal wall are cut down; the moats that run around the building are buried; some buildings of Pope Urban VIII are grounded; Also causes the contemporary rise of the road level, the height of the facade of the castle is considerably reduced.
The Passetto di Borgo
The Passetto di Borgo is the pedestrian passage that connects Castel Sant'Angelo to the Vatican and was built in 1277 by Niccolò III to allow the Pope to take refuge in the then Mole Adriana in case of danger.
About 800 meters long, thanks to its elevated position, it also had the purpose of controlling the area of the village below or of leading prisoners of a certain importance to the dungeons of Castel Sant'Angelo whose presence was not supposed to be known in the dreaded prisons. skullcaps. Perhaps, it is precisely that stretch that the illustrious prisoner Beatrice Cenci traveled in chains and in complete secrecy, before the execution in 1599.
Castel Sant'Angelo and the Sistine Chapel
Linked to the Vatican via the Passetto di Borgo, Castel Sant'Angelo is about 1 km from the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums and can be easily reached via the great Via della Conciliazione or through Borgo Pio.
It is therefore natural to combine the visit of Castel Sant'Angelo with a tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica to get to know the millennial history of the Vatican in depth.
Entrance to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums + Castel Sant'Angelo entrance
Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Square Tour
