The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant’Angelo (English: Castle of the Holy Angel), is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum.
The popes converted the structure into a castle, beginning in the 14th century; Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St Peter’s Basilica by a covered fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo. The fortress was the refuge of Pope Clement VII from the siege of Charles V’s Landsknechte during the Sack of Rome (1527), in which Benvenuto Cellini describes strolling the ramparts and shooting enemy soldiers.
The Papal state also used Sant’Angelo as a prison; Giordano Bruno, for example, was imprisoned there for six years. Another prisoner was the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini. Executions were performed in the small inner courtyard. As a prison, it was also the setting for the third act of Giacomo Puccini’s 1900 opera Tosca; the eponymous heroine leaps to her death from the Castel’s ramparts. – Wikipedia
Decommissioned in 1901, the castle is now a museum, the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant’Angelo. Later posts will show some images of Rome from the top of this structure as well as some images of the castle at night.
Bronze statue of Michael the Archangel, standing on top of the Castel Sant’Angelo, modelled in 1753 by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt (1710–1793).
#Rome, #CastelSantAngelo, #CastleoftheHolyAngel, #TerriButlerPhotography
