Castel Sant'Angelo also known as Hadrian's Mausoleum is a fortress built along the right bank of the Tiber just a short distance from the Vatican.
Its construction was begun in 125 d. C. On the outskirts of Rome along the Tiber River, at the behest of Emperor Hadrian with the purpose of being used as a mausoleum for his family and was completed in 139 by Antonino Pio.
Until 403, he maintained this function to be transformed by the Emperor Honorius into a military building to defend the city and integrated into the Aurelian walls.
In 590 while the plague devastated the city, during a procession Pope Gregory I saw the Archangel Gabriel who was lining up the sword announcing the end of the epidemic, as it actually happened.
Since then it was called by the Romans with the current name and in remembrance of the apparition was made to install on the highest glacis of the castle, a statue depicting an angel lining the sword.
The current bronze Angel is the work of the Flemish sculptor Pieter Von Verschaffelt and is the sixth after those in wood, marble and bronze that in the past have preceded it.
In 1277 it was built by the will of Pope Nicholas III, a fortified and elevated corridor of 800 meters (called Passetto di Borgo) that connected the castle with Vatican City and allowed the Pope an escape route in case of siege.
In the past it was also used to lead to the prisons of the castle famous people whose imprisonment was good to keep secret.
In the castle between 1538 and 1539 was imprisoned Benvenuto Cellini and famous his escape during a party in the castle.
Dropping from the high walls with a rope made with the sheets broke a leg but still managed to reach the house of his friend Cardinal Cordaro.
Its construction was begun in 125 d. C. On the outskirts of Rome along the Tiber River, at the behest of Emperor Hadrian with the purpose of being used as a mausoleum for his family and was completed in 139 by Antonino Pio.
Until 403, he maintained this function to be transformed by the Emperor Honorius into a military building to defend the city and integrated into the Aurelian walls.
In 590 while the plague devastated the city, during a procession Pope Gregory I saw the Archangel Gabriel who was lining up the sword announcing the end of the epidemic, as it actually happened.
Since then it was called by the Romans with the current name and in remembrance of the apparition was made to install on the highest glacis of the castle, a statue depicting an angel lining the sword.
The current bronze Angel is the work of the Flemish sculptor Pieter Von Verschaffelt and is the sixth after those in wood, marble and bronze that in the past have preceded it.
In 1277 it was built by the will of Pope Nicholas III, a fortified and elevated corridor of 800 meters (called Passetto di Borgo) that connected the castle with Vatican City and allowed the Pope an escape route in case of siege.
In the past it was also used to lead to the prisons of the castle famous people whose imprisonment was good to keep secret.
In the castle between 1538 and 1539 was imprisoned Benvenuto Cellini and famous his escape during a party in the castle.
Dropping from the high walls with a rope made with the sheets broke a leg but still managed to reach the house of his friend Cardinal Cordaro.