Feb 01 2009
Rome Trip: Castel Sant’ Angelo
In Roman times, the huge volume of Castel S. Angelo seemed very different from what we see today: wanted and probably designed by the emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for the family, was a huge cylinder, about 65 meters in diameter, covered with travertine marble and covered with thick trees vegetation, the center of which is raised a cylinder smaller, more or less as expected, the most ancient mausoleum of Augustus – the remains of which can be seen today in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, next all’Ara Pacis. It is surrounded by numerous sculptures, and a crown, there was the bronze statue of the emperor, perhaps as the sun. Begun in 123 was completed under Antoninus Pius, and served as the imperial tomb to Caracalla, who was killed in 217.
Over time, the mausoleum is open to different functions: it was transformed by Aurelian in 271, in a fortified outpost, and incorporated by walls which opened the door then that of St. Peter – who, in medieval times, allowing the connection to the tomb of. It was used as a fortress, both from the barbarians who, later, the Pope, when he became the defensive cornerstone of the district of Borgo. Became the impregnable garrison of the papal power, received the papal apartments, there were made of angular bastions and a pentagonal outer wall. In 1277 he was made a pass overhead, called ‘Passetto Borgo’ which joined the Vatican walls, giving the Pope a speedy and safe escape route.
The building was also used as a prison, since the Middle Ages. Its cells, dark and damp, housed prisoners distinguished – as Benvenuto Cellini, Giordano Bruno, Cagliostro. In the courtyards were beheaded for the executions, while the cells are dying of hunger or torture.
After the birth of the Italian State, the fortress was turned into barracks. Finally, today is open and hosts the National Museum of Castel S. Angel.
With the restoration dell’Ottocento we lost the original relationship of continuity with the river and the bridge was restored and placed in ditches garden spaces adjacent, newly transformed by a recent comprehensive revision of the area. The current amount of the Castle incorporates largely structures originate. A side of the central square tower develop the papal apartments, the Renaissance, which open on the Tiber, with its splendid marble loggia of Julius II. Upstairs, in the eighteenth century, the rooms were built for the vicecastellano and was placed on the terrace, the famous statue that dell’arcangelo Michele rinfodera sword. The statue, from which the castle derives its name, wants to remember the ancient legend in which the terrible plague of 590 ended thanks to the appearance of an angel above the castle, and with the gesture of the sheathed sword, granted the pardon.
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