Castel Sant'Angelo

From the bridge, the castle's round bulk looks like a layer cake, and in a way it is: every era added its own layer. At the bottom is the mausoleum that the emperor Hadrian began around 134–135 for himself and his family, completed in 139 by his successor, Antoninus Pius. The ashes of several emperors were laid here, down to Caracalla.

1From tomb to fortress

In late antiquity the building was absorbed into the city walls and became a fortress. The popes linked it to the Vatican with the Passetto di Borgo, a raised corridor along the top of a wall about 800 metres long. Clement VII fled along it in 1527, during the Sack of Rome by the troops of Emperor Charles V. The castle was also a prison, and its terraces are the setting for the last act of Puccini's «Tosca» (1900), whose heroine throws herself from the top.

According to tradition, in 590 Pope Gregory the Great saw the Archangel Michael above the mausoleum sheathing his sword, a sign that the plague ravaging Rome was over. Hence the castle's name.

The bronze angel on top, by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, was put in place in 1753.

2The bridge of angels

The bridge beneath your feet is the ancient Pons Aelius, built by Hadrian as the approach to his mausoleum. Between 1669 and 1671 Bernini designed the ten angels that line it, each holding an instrument of Christ's Passion; most were carved by his assistants.

3What to look for

• The angels on the bridge: look for the crown of thorns, the nails or the lance.
• The Passetto, the battlemented wall running from the castle towards St Peter's.
• St Peter and St Paul, the two 16th-century statues at the entrance to the bridge.